top of page
The Know Your Rights Blog
Search
MJ
- Jul 29, 2020
- 2 min
Will the CASE Act Move to a Vote? You Can Help!
We first mentioned the CASE Act back in 2016 (see post here), and have had high hopes for the bill to pass into law after it passed the House by a majority vote on October 22, 2019. It moved to the Senate, and seemed to have similar support there until Senator Wyden of Oregon placed what's called a "hold" on the bill. Senators don't need to have a specific reason for these holds, and it appears that Senator Wyden is interested in seeing the bill languish and die without debat
39 views0 comments
MJ
- Jun 26, 2020
- 2 min
Finding Infringing Material Online: Can Services Help Protect Your Intellectual Property?
*Originally published 8/30/2016, updated June 26, 2020. You've created your material and sent it out into the world, whether in a print edition or simply "out there" on your blog or website. You have loyal customers and fans. But what do you do to make certain that someone unscrupulous doesn't take your material, adopt it as their own, and put it out into the world as a competing product? Searching for infringing uses of your images, art, or writing on the web can be a daunti
10 views0 comments
MJ
- Apr 26, 2019
- 1 min
Copyright and IP: Days of Celebration
Today marks World Intellectual Property Day 2019. Sponsored by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), this annual event revolves around a certain theme for study around a certain issue in intellectual property. This year's theme is "Reach for the Gold: IP and Sports," and there are a TON of great articles on the WIPO site about photography rights, IP and the Olympic Games, patents for sports equipment, and more. If you've never really had an interest in learning
0 views0 comments
MJ
- Feb 7, 2019
- 2 min
Copyright Disputes in Georgian England
I have just returned from a trip to London with my husband who was traveling there for a work assignment. As it was not my first time traveling there, it was a good time to explore some more offbeat museums and locations. From visiting the Charles Dickens museum (situated in a house where he lived for a number of years), to the Tate Britain for a chance to look at some of William Blake's original etchings for "Songs of Innocence and Experience," London is truly a bibliophile'
0 views0 comments
MJ
- Jan 1, 2019
- 1 min
Happy Public Domain Day!
For the first time in an incredibly long time, new titles are being added to the Public Domain in the United States! On January 1, 2019, the provisions set forth in the Copyright Extension Act of 1998 finally expires, allowing hundreds of works to enter the Public Domain. From here on out (barring another piece of legislation to the contrary), new works will enter the Public Domain on January 1 of each year, just as they do in other countries. This year, it means that works p
0 views0 comments
MJ
- Mar 17, 2017
- 2 min
Should You Register Your Work with the US Copyright Office?
Did you know that your work is automatically covered by U.S. copyright law as soon as you set it in a fixed format? According to Title 17 of the US Code, all works are protected under copyright law from the moment they are placed in a fixed, tangible medium and can be perceived either directly (on paper, canvas, or other "solid" medium) or with the aid of a machine or device (computer or e-device, if you will). What does this mean? Well, essentially, you do not have to regist
2 views0 comments
MJ
- Feb 22, 2017
- 2 min
Just What is Fair Use, Anyway?
U.S. Copyright law exists to help promote creativity and innovation by providing a framework for protecting a creator's interest in their work so that they might benefit from dissemination of their work to the public. It is a creator's sole right to sell, distribute or create derivatives of their work. Infringement occurs when another party represents or adapts another person's intellectual property as their own without proper permission. That said, within copyright law exist
3 views0 comments
MJ
- Dec 7, 2016
- 1 min
Infringing on the "Little Guy": Hope for a Small Claims Copyright Court
Many people still don't realize that copyright does not need to be formally registered with the US Copyright Office in order to be protected by copyright law. That said, among the benefits to registration is the right to bring forth a suit for infringement, under which the rightsholder may be awarded legal fees and statutory damages. "This is all well and good," you think, "For large publishers. But what about me, the independent publisher or author? Surely attorney's fees, t
5 views0 comments
MJ
- Sep 3, 2015
- 2 min
Read Your Contracts!
I teach a course on permissions and rights in The George Washington University's Master's in Publishing Program. In it, I stress the importance of understanding your contracts and licenses. After all, these contracts are *everywhere.* Don't believe me? Turn over your ticket at the next live event you go to. I can assure you that you will likely find some language referring to the venue's rights to utilize your image at the event in any way they see fit, including during a bro
0 views0 comments
MJ
- May 14, 2015
- 3 min
The Instagram Debate: Fair Use in Art on Social Media
In probably one of the most interesting copyright debates since the musician Prince and a Pennsylvania mother went toe to toe over a YouTube posting, the artist Richard Prince, has apparently blatantly adapted Instagram postings and created works placed on display in the Frieze Gallery in New York. The Internets have erupted with stories reporting on individual Instagram users selling their own versions of the same prints that Richard Prince sold for $90,000. And, according t
12 views0 comments
MJ
- May 4, 2015
- 3 min
Content and Social Media
Today, Facebook announced that it is partnering with six major media publishers to test publishing their content directly on Facebook. The idea: by keeping readers within the Facebook ecosystem, readers will experience faster loads for content and will no longer have to "suffer" a time lag for content loading, and readers will also be able to experience more of the material they want to see within Facebook. The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Guardian, and National Geograph
0 views0 comments
MJ
- Apr 20, 2015
- 2 min
Inspiration or Infringement: In Music?
When is a new work of art, music composition, or writing something new, and when is it considered infringement? Most of you have probably heard of the Pharrell Williams/Alan Thicke vs. Marvin Gaye suit, or perhaps the Sam Smith vs. Tom Petty suit. In the case of the former, Williams and Thicke lost their case to the Gaye family, who alleged that the song "Blurred Lines" infringed on Gaye's "Got to Give it Up." In the latter, Sam Smith avoided a protracted legal battle by quie
2 views0 comments
MJ
- Feb 13, 2015
- 2 min
If It's on the Internet, It's FREE!
I have lost count of how many times I have heard the statement "If it's on the internet, it's free to use." The truth is, copyright vests with the creator at the time of creation in a fixed format. No special registrations are necessary. This applies to all content: from photographs to books, artwork to websites (like this one). All content is protected by copyright as soon as it is set in a particular format. It's not copyrighted when it's sitting in your head (as an idea),
0 views0 comments
bottom of page