Get Permission
Last week’s newsletter struck a chord. As experts, we have all been victims of someone “borrowing”, aka stealing, our work. We don’t want to be that bad guy.
Copyright law provides the owner of the copyright in a work—often the author of the work—with the exclusive rights to reproduce, adapt, publicly distribute, publicly perform, and publicly display the work, or authorize others to engage in these activities.
If you want to do any of these activities with a work that you do not own, regardless of where you discovered the work, you will need to get permission—a license—from the copyright owner to ensure your use of a copyrighted work is legal.
How to Get Permission
Research the Copyright Owner:
Look for copyright notices on the work. If you know the author or the title of the work, check the US Copyright Office's records here. Remember though, neither the lack of a copyright notice nor the lack of registration in the Copyright Office means the work is in the public domain and free for taking.
Also, note that the name on a copyright notice may not be the current owner. Copyrights can be sold or licensed. Only the current copyright owner of the exact material to be used can grant permission for its use.
Some works may contain material originally published elsewhere. Check the work for footnotes or a bibliography for clues that material included in a larger work belongs to someone other than the owner specified in the copyright notice.
For digital files, copyright management information (CMI), such as the author’s name or the copyright notice, may be available in the metadata in the file. For example, an image file often includes metadata describing the picture’s size, image resolution, and the date of creation; it may also include metadata identifying the creator, copyright owner, or licensing terms.
Contact the Copyright Owner:
Once you have a clearer map of the copyright ownership, reach out to the copyright owner for permission. This involves providing detailed information about who you are and how you intend to use the work, including specifics about the material you wish to use, the intended audience, and whether it will be sold.
Start this process well in advance of when you plan to use the material. The first person you contact may not have the authority to grant permission and may need to refer you to the actual copyright owner.
Hot tip:
Check out the Copyright Clearance Center, a marketplace for copyright licenses. CCC manages the rights to copyright owners’ works, helping them to get compensated for the use of their content. For users, it provides an easy way to legally license copyrighted materials. Many periodicals, newspapers, and journals make their content available through this service.
Got questions about getting permission? Hit reply.
IP is fuel! 🚀
Erin