CHAPTER 25. COPYRIGHT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 239
Copyrightcan be our friend, or it can get us into trouble.
This is the general rule. (There are exceptions.)
- Do not publish pictures that are owned by someone else. This espe-
cially includes pictures we have copied from another website. - Do not publish words that were written by someone else. This espe-
cially includes words we have taken from another website. - Do not link to illegal content, such as hacked games or pirated movies.
The penalty can be monetary damages and permanent loss of our website.
To be safe, everything we post on the web should be our own work.
Obviously that is not always practical or possible. This section should help
us know what we can legally do, and what trouble we can get into.
Generally, copyright is the right to prevent people from making copies of
your work. Copyright is generally automatic. If someone copies your work,
you can force them to stop doing it. If you have formally filed your copyright,
you can also sue for damages.
Copyright applies to words, images, audio recordings, and motion pictures.
And it applies to other things, but those four things are the ones we most
often use on webpages.
25.1.1 Terminology
Ideascannot be protected by copyright. They may be partially protected
by patent.
Exam Question 349(p.357): Can ideas be copyrighted?
Required Answer:no
Expressionis protected by copyright. Copyright covers the expression of
ideas, and not the ideas themselves. You must be careful in using words
written by others, but you are free to rewrite, to express even the very same
ideas, using your own words.
Plagiarismis related to copyright. Plagiarism is when you present the
intellectual work of other people as though it were your own. This may
happen by cut-and-paste from a website, or by group work on homework.