What is Copyright Infringement?

Many people do not even realize they are infringing on copyright by putting up content that does not belong to them.  The Gather Help section is a great help to know what is acceptable and what is not.  I recoomend everyone read it.

Copyright infringement is the unauthorized use of copyrighted material.  Copyright gives the creator of original material exclusive rights to a creative work for a certain amount of time.  During that time nobody else may reproduce or distribute that work without permission.  Works that may be copyrighted include, but are not limited to writing, drawings, videos and photographs.  A piece of work does not need to contain the copyright symbols (Copr., Copyright or ©) to be considered copyrighted.  The United States as part of the Berne Convention recognizes automatic copyright.  This means a work need not be registered to be considered copyrighted.  However, some people use watermarks or digitally sign their works to try to deter unauthorized use.

The reason for copyright is to protect the creator from others profiting from distributing his work.  While some works may be released into public domain for use by the creator.  Other works enter into public domain only after the copyright period has expired.  There are Fair Use exceptions which may be used as a defense in a copyright case.  Fair Use also allows for review, parodies, teaching, research and news reporting.

You may be wondering how this affects you.  Everytime someone "borrows" or copies work from another it is copyright infringement.  This means when someone puts a video, photograph or article up that they did not create themselves or get permission to use they are infringing on someone's copyright.  Gather Terms of Service (TOS) states that one should only publish content they have created or have rights to.  This is to avoid copyright infringement problems.

When you put content up on Gather you are profiting from it, regardless of how much or how little you make from it.  A story copied from a book may hurt sales of that book because people have already read it.  Redirecting a written work from one website to another may take ad clicks from that site.  These small amounts add up when everyone starts doing it.

Then there is the ethical side of it.  Just because you can do it, doesn't make it right.  Sure, I could surf the net and find cool things to put up, but that doesn't make it right.  Sure, other people do it, but that does not make it right.