Brief Six - Copyright and Fair Use
Do you Agree to the Terms and Conditions?
You are scrolling through your social media pages, and fall in love with an image that your coworker posted, so you post it on your feed. What does this mean? Are you breaking any rules? An act such as this one dances on the line of copyright infringement, and today we will go into depths on what violates the rules and what stays in the green.
Copyright is defined as the exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same (search). This affects us as social media users every day.
As active users of social media, many people find themselves mindlessly clicking away, sharing information that isn't theirs. The problem with this lies in the fact that once we download the app and create our profiles, we check yes on the box titled "do you agree to the terms and conditions." However, I know myself and many others are guilty of checking that box without even taking a glance at the terms and conditions for the website, and this is where we can get into trouble. This boils down to the fact that "these terms often include a statement certifying that the poster holds all intellectual property rights to the content that he or she is posting on the site" (copyright-issues-for-social-media).
Copyright infringement is more common than you might think, as I said before, many users don't even know when they have done it. In some instances, it is not the user's fault at all. When it comes to social networking platforms, often times the company itself is held liable. Look at the application Twitter for example, this app is built around users sharing other people's content and vice versa. The fact that they encourage this sort of behavior means that they would be the ones to take the heat for their user's mistakes. However, if the user is found at fault, with no help from a higher power, they are most commonly fined. Fines for copyright infringement can range from 200 to 150,000 dollars, and legal penalties can include jail time.
While this was a brief look into the actions and repercussions of copyright infringement, I think we get the idea. Do not share a work if you do not own the right to it!!! If you don't know who the owner is, then it is probably not you. While most of us are just mindlessly posting, tweeting, and tagging, it is essential to be mindful of copyright laws in place.
As active users of social media, many people find themselves mindlessly clicking away, sharing information that isn't theirs. The problem with this lies in the fact that once we download the app and create our profiles, we check yes on the box titled "do you agree to the terms and conditions." However, I know myself and many others are guilty of checking that box without even taking a glance at the terms and conditions for the website, and this is where we can get into trouble. This boils down to the fact that "these terms often include a statement certifying that the poster holds all intellectual property rights to the content that he or she is posting on the site" (copyright-issues-for-social-media).
Most social media users believe that by simply putting the phrase "I do not own the rights to this music" or "I do not own the rights to this image," take the chances of copyright infringement out of the question; this is completely incorrect. While it is generous to give credit to the author, this does not grant you the permission, which is what you need to avoid a copyright claim. Now that we have covered how we can get ourselves into trouble, let's talk about the repercussions once were caught.Dr Drew used a copyright claim to try to take down this video of him saying COVID-19 is less dangerous than the flu. Be a shame if we retweeted it. pic.twitter.com/t9P9o5KFxu— Denny Rombardt 🔄🐝 [#Hanian] (@tfgyem) April 6, 2020
Copyright infringement is more common than you might think, as I said before, many users don't even know when they have done it. In some instances, it is not the user's fault at all. When it comes to social networking platforms, often times the company itself is held liable. Look at the application Twitter for example, this app is built around users sharing other people's content and vice versa. The fact that they encourage this sort of behavior means that they would be the ones to take the heat for their user's mistakes. However, if the user is found at fault, with no help from a higher power, they are most commonly fined. Fines for copyright infringement can range from 200 to 150,000 dollars, and legal penalties can include jail time.
While this was a brief look into the actions and repercussions of copyright infringement, I think we get the idea. Do not share a work if you do not own the right to it!!! If you don't know who the owner is, then it is probably not you. While most of us are just mindlessly posting, tweeting, and tagging, it is essential to be mindful of copyright laws in place.
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