What You Need to Know About Copyright

Happy Book and Copyright Day!

As a homeschooler and a blogger, I appreciate the ability to use resources created by other people. As an author (and simply as a Christian, who believes “the worker is worth his wages”), I also appreciate the right of the resources’ creators to receive proper credit and/or compensation for their work. These two things are not inherently at odds! Generally speaking, people create things in order to share them in some capacity – not to hide them under rocks. So all that’s necessary is to know how to properly use the resources available to us, so we are just and fair – and legal.

(Please note that A. when I refer to copyright laws, I am referencing U.S. law, as I am not familiar with laws in other countries and B. I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice; it’s just my personal understanding of these matters. Consider it educational, not official.)

What You Need to Know About Copyright if You’re a HOMESCHOOLER

A little bit of thoughtful common sense will go a long way when it comes to copyright! Think about the intent behind the product when it was created – how was it intended to be used? Are you maintaining the spirit of that intent, or are you abusing it?

Keep in mind that most small publishers, in particular, need your ongoing and properly-managed business to keep their families fed. Most are reasonable people and will be glad to work with you if you have a legitimate need to stray from the norm. But they expect – and rightly so – that if they are providing you with a product or service, they are going to be justly compensated for that product/service.

Consumable workbooks were meant to be consumed. Unless the book specifies that it may be copied, it is not legal or ethical to make six copies of a workbook’s pages so that your six children can all use the same one. If you’re going to use it as a textbook and make them copy their work onto other paper, most people agree that this is probably acceptable. But if you want the benefit of the workbook for all of your children, you need to buy them each their own copy. (If you only need one or two pages, most authors will be glad to grant you permission to copy those couple of pages. Just ask!)
If you are compiling a unit study, your children are doing a project, etc. you do not have the right to copy whatever text or images you want, carte blanche, because it’s “educational.” Although there is some leeway for “fair use,” especially as applies to educational use, consider the Golden Rule! A brief quote here or there is probably fine. But don’t go copying whole chapters of books (unless they’re in the public domain).
Speaking of the public domain, something is not necessarily in the public domain simply because it’s out of print! A copyright is preserved for a set number of years, and/or for a certain number of years after the original copyright holder dies. (It varies a bit depending on when the book was published. The copyright law changed in the early 20th century.) If it was published prior to 1910, and has not been republished since, it is probably in the public domain.
US government documents are, in most cases, in the public domain.
If someone makes something freely available online for others to use, that means you may use it – but don’t redistribute in any way without specific permission from the creator. (Even if you’re not charging for it. And I really hope you aren’t trying to charge for someone else’s work!) Linking to it should be fine, if it is publicly available, but don’t add it to your own site, email it to friends, package it with other items, etc.

What You Need to Know About Copyright if You’re a BLOGGER

Again, common sense will go a long way. Remember the Golden Rule – what would you want, if it were your post/recipe/image at issue? Don’t repost someone’s whole post or recipe without permission. Most bloggers will be more than happy for the added traffic if you post a quick description or even a brief quote and link back to their original post. But if you copy their whole post, they lose that traffic because there’s no reason for your readers to visit their site. Don’t do it! (Of course, if you have made specific arrangements with them to do so, that’s different.) Keep in mind that the same is true for Facebook, etc.!
You don’t have the right to use an image just because it’s on the internet. If it’s in the public domain, or has a Creative Commons or similar license permitting its use, you may. Otherwise, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. (Also note that there are different versions of the Creative Commons license. Some forbid commercial use and/or derivative works, while others will allow you to do whatever you want with the image. Read it to be sure.) I like MorgueFile for filling in when I don’t have an image I need and don’t want to pay for one.
This last one might qualify as a “grey area,” but I’m going to put it out there, anyway. Services like Pinterest have made it easier and easier for bloggers to “curate” content. Generally speaking, the use of this service is probably fine: it inherently includes source credit, as well as a link back to the original source, and the use of the thumbnail image in this way probably falls under fair use. BUT…a couple things I believe are worth keeping in mind when doing this:
1) If your post has nothing to contribute beyond the Pins you’re including, it’s probably better to just not do it. You should be including fresh content that incorporates the Pins, or a very fresh take on the grouping. Otherwise, there’s no reason someone couldn’t/shouldn’t just find those same Pins on Pinterest itself. This just strikes me as an unethical use of others’ content, especially if it makes up a large proportion of a given blog (as opposed to an occasional post), because the blogger is benefiting from someone else’s work, without having to have anything of value worth contributing himself.
2) Remember the goal of sending people back to the original posts/webpages for a given source – even when embedding Pinterest-based images. On occasions when I choose to use this feature, I prefer to shrink the images down so that people have to at least click back through to Pinterest, if not the original site, to see the images at their larger size.