Archives
12:15:00 PM EST
Hearing Are You Gonna Go My Way -- Lenny Kravitz
Copyright -- It's Yours!
Recently, I've been getting questions about the ownership of one's writing in one's Journal -- as in, "If I put my stuff online or in a Journal, do I still own it?" I think this question is somewhat related to the questions about whether people will steal your writing if you put it online, which I wrote about a while back. So let's talk about this briefly.
Very simply, now: For almost everybody who is not a professional writer, it comes down to this: If you wrote it, you own it. The reason for this is that in the United States, everything you write is automatically covered by copyright law, which says that you own your writing (you have the copyright) unless you specifically sell it or give it away. And since you own the writing, you have the right to say how it's displayed and used. This copyright exists even if you don't formally have it registered with the government (although doing so gives you some legal cover if you ever need to sue someone, or if there's a dispute about the copyright).
When don't you own a copyright? Here are three examples:
* If you re-use something another copyright holder wrote (this is called "plagiarism"). So don't think re-typing Harry Potter books means you suddenly have rights to JK Rowling's pot o' cash.
* If you agree in a contract or agreement to give the copyright to others. This is why you should always read "User Agreements" and contracts.
* You've agreed to give your writing to someone in exchange for getting paid -- in the writing world, this is known as "work for hire." This typically involves a contract as well.
* Others can quote a portion of something you write in their own work; this is known as "fair use." Quoting a sentence or two of a Journal entry is a good example of fair use; cutting and pasting an entire entry is not.
Unless you actively have given up your copyright, you own your words, and you and only you can legally decide what to do with them. It's yours! Enjoy.
Here's some additional copyright information from AOL Hometown. And from the Copyright Office, which should know.
Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | 
digg this
-
Thanks for the copyright info! The only thing that sucks is that ANYONE can cut and past items out of your journal into theirs and claim that they wrote it first. Not that I'm hiding any great works, but someone else might!
-
Yeah, fixed it. I always misspell that one.
-
Nice Primer, Jay. PLAGIARISM is bad...
-
Thanks for the reminder John.
12/10/03 6:20 PM