In case you missed it, I recently hosted a LinkedIn Live session (I host them every last Wednesday of the month😊) where I discussed the 360 degrees of trouble you can get in if you hire contractors without a written agreement. The unintentional collaborator is your nightmare come true.

The copyright owner of content has the exclusive rights to reproduce, adapt, publicly distribute, publicly perform, and publicly display the work, or authorize others to engage in these activities.

Many of you wonder about what sets truly original work apart from derivative work. We often draw inspiration from various sources, so where do we draw the line?

A question I received recently: “There are thousands of books on leadership and all of them do not have super original ideas. Is each book a copyrighted original?”

Many of you wonder about what sets truly original work apart from derivative work. We often draw inspiration from various sources, so where do we draw the line?

A question I received recently: “There are thousands of books on leadership and all of them do not have super original ideas. Is each book a copyrighted original?”

US copyright law protects original works of authorship.

Per the U.S. Supreme Court, original means “the work was independently created by the author (as opposed to copied from other works), and that it possesses at least some minimal degree of creativity.”

Thank you for joining me for my three-part series about copyright infringement.

In part one, I reviewed what constitutes copyright infringement and the remedies available against infringers (which include civil and criminal penalties.)

Last week, I covered the consequences and penalties that can be levied against an infringer. They included money damages and criminal charges! No one wants to be an infringer.

I spend a lot of time talking about protecting our expertise through contracts and copyrights. Owning and controlling the fruits of our expertise is how we create scalable and saleable services businesses.

Copyright infringement and plagiarism are often used interchangeably. These terms can be confusing, but it is important to understand the differences as they represent distinct forms of legal and ethical violations…and have varying consequences.