Copyright Policy

How to keep out of trouble

I guess before I can make some suggestions on how to avoid big problems with copywrite issues it is important to know what copyright is and how does it pertain to the web. The web is so instantly gratifying that these days many people think that anything on in the internet is free game to use however deired, especially since Google makes it so easy to find and view anything we want. To think this is a huge mistake. So let's start by looking at what a copyright actually is and what it means.

Copyright: 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, architectural and certain other intellectual works. The protection pertains to works even if they are not published.

Basically that means anything created cannot be used by another person unless they are given permission by the creator. Doing otherwise is breaking the law and brings heafty punishments. Students and their work are the exception, but even school work has limitations, but I don't want to go into those details.

There are far more cant's than can's. Here are a few of the main cant's:

Put the contents of another person's web page on your page without permission.
Copy and past various pieces of of another webpage's source code to your own webpage. That is, without attribution.
Copy images, logos, or other graphics from the web and using them on your site without permission.

Now, those are some very basic things not to do. There are still many more, so keep this one rule of thumb in mind: If it's not yours, don't use it unless:

The creator gives permission to use the content freely
The copyright license specifically says that it can be used with attribution
The copyright license specifically limits free use to comercial webpages and your webpage is a non-comercial

How I've tried to keep out of trouble

My webpage is designed to showcase my personal portfolio. The content within my portfolio has material that I do not own the rights to. But because I designed the content in my portfolio while I've been a student, as far as what my undestanding of copyright laws is concerned, I'm clear, for now. So that is not the biggest issue that I faced, the biggest issue that I faced was with the images I wanted to use to showcase my portfolio content. I knew that I wanted to use photos of a macbook to showcase my work, but after ready about how extreem Apple® is about their brand, I didn't want to take any chances so I got rid of the Apple® logo entirely and used images that were free to use. Plus, for good measure, I made sure that my footer details the fact that my webpage and Apple® are not affiliated in any way.

Word to the wise.

I am a huge Apple® fan, that is why I wanted to show a macbook on all of my pages. I wanted to show that apple is my inspiration, that the content that I was able to create started with the inspiration that I found from Apple®. So if you are looking at the design of my webpage and thinking you might want to do the same, BE VERY VERY CAUTIOUS. Apple® files lawsuite all the time to protect their brand. I believ I've done the best I can from getting into trouble, so make sure you do the same.