Bloggers and the Law:What to know before you

publishKatherine L. Sunstrom

Lorance & Thompson, PC@beingkatie

#BlogElevated

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The text of this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

Christine Tremoulet’s images are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivatives 3.0 Unite States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en

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Do you value your content?

• Protect

• Inform

• Police

• Respect

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What is Copyrightable* Subject Matter?

• Original• Fixed in a tangible medium

*legal term, wrong meaning.

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What are my rights in my content?

• Copy• Distribute• Display• Make derivatives• Each is a stick in your

bundle of rights.

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It is your bundle.

• You can give away sticks from your bundle.• License people to copy and distribute.• Can hold back the right to make $ from

images/content.

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Protect your bundle.

• Copyright provision in contracts• Useful licensing tools:

creativecommons.org• Registrations• Copyright notices on

distributed and digital images• Take-down notice

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Protect your bundle with a registration.

• Copyright.gov• Form CO (all works) $35- electronic filing• Constructive Notice• More statutory protection• Within 3 months of “publication”

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How to share.• Creative commons licenses• Attribution• Non-commercial• No derivatives• Share Alike

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Protect and Inform:

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Tell people how to treat your bundle.• Copyright notice• Not required• Useful to avoid violation• Instructive as to what others can do with your

content• Enhanced damages- willfulness

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Inform:

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Awesome example from Derek Powazek.

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Derek has a great tutorial on how to size your images and put them on your page so that this shows up in the raw image if someone was to try and grab it. See his post at http://powazek.com/posts/867

Police• How to find and deal with infringers:

– http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/stopping-internet-plagiarism/

– http://www.copyscape.com/– Google image search.

• Digital Fingerprint on your RSS feed?• DMCA takedown notices.• The Court of Public Opinion

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Respect

• Blogging and copyright liability• DMCA agent

– Copyright.gov• Understand licensing• Understand what you can and cannot use

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Dispel the myths about copyright.• People will respect your bundle• Mail it to yourself• Copyright notices are offensive• Desire not to offend the public outweighs protecting

your rights• Photographing a painting or other visual work

circumvents copyright laws• Making a painting or drawing from a photo

circumvents copyright laws• If its licensed under Creative Commons I can use it.• If I link back to the author I can copy it.

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Resources.• Copyright.gov• Compfight.com- CC image search engine• Ccpics.com- collection of CC licensed images• Creativecommons.org• How to find and deal with infringers:

– http://www.marketingdock.com/copyrights/dealing-with-copyright-infringement.php

– http://www.copyscape.com/– http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/

• Derek Powazek’s copyright notice suggestions:– http://powazek.com/posts/867

• EFF- Blogging and copyright liability– https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/IP

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Bloggers’ Rights

• You can be a journalist!• Free Speech• Anonymous Speech• Section 230• Bloggers’ rights:

https://www.eff.org/bloggers• Legal Guide for Bloggers:

https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal19

• Dietz Development v. Perez- Bad contractor, Yelp review.

Courtney Love Settles Twitter Rant Lawsuit http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20039218-10391698.html

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Questions?Katie Sunstrom

Lorance & Thompson, P.C. 2900 North Loop West, Suite 500 Houston, Texas 77092 P: 713.868.5560 F: 713.864.4671 C: 713.502.3049

E: ks@lorancethompson.com @beingkatie@stalkerlawyer

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*This presentation is available online at http://www.slideshare.net/sunstromlaw/