Even if you aren’t a litigious sort of person, you will still do well to concern yourself with writer website copyright. Just because you, personally, don’t go searching for plagiarism and copyright violations, doesn’t mean that they won’t find you.
Writer Website Copyright: The Basics
If any of this looks familiar, it’s because I have other posts on copyright. And, let’s face it. It really hasn’t changed that much. But it does bear repeating all the same.
The Elements of Copyright
According to the US Copyright Office,
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S.Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.
Per Section 106 of the Copyright Act of 1967, a copyright holder can:
- reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords
- prepare derivative works based upon the work
- distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending
- perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works
- display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work
- perform the work publicly (in the case of sound recordings) by means of a digital audio transmission
Hence copyright holders have any number of rights in their own works. Can they allow others to use them? You betcha! We call that a license.
When do Copyrights Expire?
Not surprisingly, the US Copyright Office has something to say about that.
In general, for works created on or after January 1, 1978, the term of copyright is the life of the
author plus seventy years after the author’s death. If the work is a joint work with multiple authors,
the term lasts for seventy years after the last surviving author’s death.
I won’t go into works created before January 1, 1978 (you can check out the pamphlet for that). Since it’s a good 45 years ago, many currently living authors don’t have anything that old.
Er, What?
What does this mean? Well, the short answer is that you generally do better to publish your work! After all, you can’t expect anyone to guard against copying it if they don’t know it exists.
The other important takeaway: you don’t need to assert copyright or mail it yourself or anything like that. Does it help to register your work? Absolutely! And you’ll need it to defend a lawsuit. But mailing it to yourself is silly. Seriously.
Infringement and Writer Website Copyright
We are artists and that means we are copyright holders, even if we never assert our rights and never file with the copyright office. According to American copyright law, you own it if you made it. You don’t have to mail it yourself.
But to defend a case, in the US, you must register your work. In fact, the registration is a prerequisite to actually taking someone to court for infringement. Thank you, copyright attorney extraordinaire, Michael Stewart!!
Infringement
Here, however, I will only talk about American law. If you assert copyright in another country, the law will most likely differ. Furthermore, if you have any questions, ask me in the comments section. I will try to research and answer you in a timely fashion. But don’t expect me to do the huge amount of research a hired lawyer would. Nope. I am not doing that much free work for you, sorry, not sorry.
Or ask a copyright attorney. This area, like many areas of the law, has nuances and there can be changes. This blog is no substitute for good advice from an experienced lawyer. If you think you need to protect your rights, then do so properly. And that means hiring an attorney.
Yes, you will need to actually pay that person.
Details
The American Bar Association explains it better. It publishes a Young Lawyers series to help newly minted lawyers understand the nuances of complex sections of practice. So the ABA explains:
An action for copyright infringement may arise where a third party violates one or more of the exclusive rights granted to copyright owners. To establish infringement, the plaintiff must prove: “(1) ownership of a valid copyright, and (2) copying of constituent elements of the work that are original.”
Ownership of a valid copyright consists of: “(1) originality in the author; (2) copyrightability of the subject matter; (3) a national point of attachment of the work, such as to permit a claim of copyright; (4) compliance with applicable statutory formalities; and (5) (if the plaintiff is not the author) a transfer of rights or other relationship between the author and the plaintiff so as to constitute the plaintiff as the valid copyright claimant.” A copyright registration certificate from the Copyright Office serves as prima facie evidence of elements (1) through (4). If the defendant rebuts the plaintiff’s prima facie evidence, then the above elements of valid copyright ownership become essential to the plaintiff’s case.
So what is the ABA is saying? Registration with the US Copyright office is necessary to successfully bring an infringement claim. If you think your work might be infringed upon, if you feel it is a danger and you are concerned about it, then get some peace of mind and register it with the US Copyright Office.
Are There Any Writer Website Copyright Exceptions? Or Any Copyright Exceptions?
I am so glad you asked.
Purdue University offers a terrific and very readable summary of the main known exceptions to copyright infringement claims.
Fair Use
For the fair use defense, Purdue outlines four basic factors:
Purpose and Character
Some specific use cases favor fair use. These include nonprofit, educational, and personal uses. Plus there are those which represent a potential tipping point.
These include teaching, research, scholarship, criticism, commentary, and news reporting. And there are those which favor needing permission. These include commercial, entertainment, and for-profit uses.
Hence, a nonprofit’s research is more likely to be fair use than a for-profit enterprise’s commercial use. Hence the for-profit business should seek the copyright holder’s permission.
Nature of Work
To favor fair use, it should be a fact and/or published. But to favor needing permission, it should be a fiction and/or unpublished. E. g. It’s more likely to be fair use if you repeat a published fact about dinosaurs. Whereas you more likely need permission for an unpublished novel about vampires.
Amount
Small and insignificant bits of copying are more likely to be fair use than large ones representing a work’s heart. As a result, those are more likely to require permission.
Hence, if I copy the character of Millicent Bulstrode, then the character is minor and small. But this does not necessarily mean JK Rowling won’t sue me. Still, copying Hermione Granger is another matter entirely.
Market Effect
You’re more likely to be in the fair use realm if:
- Licensing/permissions are unavailable or there is no major impact,
- There is limited/restricted access to the work, or
- The user or institution owns a legal copy.
But it’s different if there is a major impact, or licensing/permissions are readily available. Or the work has worldwide availability, or there is repeated or long-term use. Then the scale slides to requiring permission.
Profit and sales are not an element to this cause of action. Although selling the copied article, particularly multiple instances of it, can place the act into the ‘requires permission’ camp.
Face to Face Instruction
According to Purdue,
The traditional classroom or face-to-face instruction is when the instructor and the students of a nonprofit educational institution are in a place devoted to instruction and the teaching and learning take place at the same time. In this setting all performances and displays of a work are allowed. Requirements:
- All materials must be legally acquired.
- Teaching activities must take place in a classroom or a similar place devoted to instruction.
Exceptions: Virtual Instruction
Like face-to-face instruction allowance, virtual instruction generally gets a pass, per Purdue University. However, there are some specifics. For example, the class must be a regular offering in the curriculum.
What About Parody?
The American Bar Association notes the United States Supreme Court treats parody and satire separately. But the ABA feels it’s a distinction without much of a difference. Both are mockery. But satire is often more like commentary than outright mimicry.
For the ABA, and particularly when a work has both elements, the difference matters less. Although copyright holders might be more likely to license satire rather than parody. This is because parody is pretty much a knockoff by definition.
Commentary generally falls under fair use. That commentary can be amusing or not, satirical or not. Copying generally isn’t fair use. But amusement and exaggeration blurs that line.
The best advice I can give you is: don’t make your work into a copyright test case.
In other words: be original!
Writer Website Copyright: Takeaways
Beyond protecting your own work and trying not to get into your own copyright hot water, there is the matter of someone out and out pirating your stuff. This happens with annoying regularity. DMCA takedown notices can be semi-effective, but determined thieves likely will not care about your rights.
A few ways to protect yourself include using PDFs for review copies or beta reader copies, and not Word docs or Google docs. With those, copying is still possible, although you need software to do it.
If you are published through a publisher (traditional or hybrid), talk to their legal department about what they do, and how you can potentially help them. But if it’s just you, you may want to resign yourself to the fact that it can turn into just so much Whack-a-Mole.
Give pirates and infringers no quarter. But at the same time, don’t let them run your life so much that you have no time to write.
Want More of Writer Website Development?
If my post on website speed resonates with you, then be sure to check out my other articles about how to create a writer website.
Writer Website Development
- How to Create a Writer Website: Start a Writer Website
- What to Write About
- Writer SEO
- Author Website Copyright
- Writer Website Design
- Mobile Design
- Writer Website User Experience Design
Protect your writing and your writer website by paying attention to copyright. #amwriting