What to Do When Someone Steals Your Work
How do you feel when someone steals your ideas?
At some point in your freelance career, you may find yourself successful at what you do. Chances are, if you’re reading this, that you have or that you’re on your way. Unfortunately, one common indicator of success is the proportion of individuals who attempt to copy, borrow or steal original content from you. Realistically, this has likely already happened to you at some point in the past without your knowledge.
I’ve been frustrated by this numerous times. I’ve had carefully crafted text that I’ve sculpted over the years lifted from my website and used without my consent on a competitor’s site. Occasionally, I’ve stumbled across an entire duplication of one of my original website designs, something that I consider less than flattering.
You’d think that this would get easier with time. It doesn’t. It’s nothing short of a violation of your hard work. Knowing that someone else is benefiting on your behalf and at your expense is a royal pain and, from a business perspective, a serious threat. Knowing how to prepare, identify, deal with and respond to this type of copyright infringement is quickly becoming one of the necessary skills for any serious business owner.
How to Prepare
At a minimum, make sure to include the following phrase at the bottom of your creations, substituting Your Legal Name with your name and the year with the first year that your content was copyrighted in:
Copyright 2009 Your Legal Name. All Rights Reserved.
Making it Legal
If you simply leave things as is, you’re technically using what some people refer to as a “poor man’s copyright”. What you’re lacking is an enforceable copyright. To do this, you’ll need to actually file your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office. Since some types of intellectual property such as websites change and adapt to demand constantly, you may need to re-file your copyright after each significant change, or simply re-file every year. The cost is low, yet the benefit is significant.
You’ll also want to make sure that you have an established business relationship with a lawyer who can represent you. If you’re operating as a formal business, the time to find a company lawyer is not when things start to fall apart. You’ll want someone who is familiar with your business and willing to go to bat for you should you end up needing to enforce a serious copyright violation. Your lawyer can also assist with the filing of the copyright paperwork if you’d rather not deal with the process. Regardless, you need a good small business lawyer.
The Psychology of Influence
While having the basic copyright phrase on your content helps you legally, it isn’t very effective at actually preventing someone intent on copying part or all of your website. One common practice is to add a phrase similar to the following below your copyright notice:
No part of this website may be reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of Your Legal Name.
I’ve found that, in practice, this doesn’t really work. And here’s why: This warning is more of a description of what is not allowed, something that is unlikely to be a psychological motivator for someone already predisposed to content theft.
A slightly more effective approach is to use a phrase that implies monitoring as opposed to simply stating the rules. I’m a big fan of Copyscape.com where you can either use one of their embedded badges or simply use the phrase, “Page Protected by Copyscape. DO NOT COPY”. I’ve found that this is more likely to prevent theft than the mere mention of What Not To Do. Regardless of the approach you take, your goal should be to indicate the presence of active monitoring.
How to Stay Vigilant
There are more monitoring programs available than you can shake a stick at. Having said that, I find an effective method is to choose one or more phrases that are relatively unique to your work, place them in quotes and set up a Google Alert to notify you automatically when a match is found. Another option is to manually scan for duplication using Copyscape’s search feature or to sign up for one of their automated monitoring services.
How to Respond
So you’ve discovered that someone has duplicated part or all of your content. How do you best respond? Freelancers tend to have limited resources and budgets, and your response needs to keep this reality in check.
The first step should always involve taking a snapshot of the duplicate content, either as a hard copy, or as a PDF. You’ll want this ammunition should you ever need to take action further down the road. The Internet Archive is another great resource for capturing past website content, however it’s not comprehensive across short spans of time and won’t necessarily include the offender’s website.
Your very next step should be to motivate the thief by the mere act of being caught in the act. Send a short, polite e-mail to the infringer asking for the material to be removed. You’d be surprised at how often this works! What won’t work is if you sabotage your chances for success by sending a nasty, angry or threatening e-mail. Instead of stimulating their “I’ve been caught” reflex, you’ll be triggering a more reactive response. In practice, I’ve found this to work with a significant number of violators.
If this fails to get a response, you’ll need to take things up a notch by sending a formal “Cease and Desist” letter to the owner of the website. If the infringement occurred online, you can typically get the mailing address of the owner from whois.net or directly from their website. Write a simple, professional letter similar to the following:
I have noticed the strong similarity of elements of your web site to my company’s web site, www.example.com. Your use of material from our site constitutes an infringement of our copyright and therefore subjects you to substantial liability under federal copyright law. Please immediately remove that material from your site and refrain from any further use of any material derived from our web site.
We would prefer to promptly resolve this matter without legal action and trust that your prompt cooperation will allow us to do so. Please send me confirmation that the infringing material will be immediately removed from your web site so that this matter can be resolved. Thank you for your cooperation.
You will want to consult your company’s lawyer to confirm that this language is appropriate for your industry.
What if nothing happens?
Your next step should be to file a notice of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) infringement with Google and the other major search engines. This involves a fair degree of work and is not as simple as you’d think. This will, however, remove the offending site from the search engine results, effectively neutering the majority of the offender’s potential referrals.
At this point, you’ll need to ask yourself the Million Dollar Question: Is the presence of this duplicate content more of a financial threat to you than the cost of having your lawyer file an injunction? If the answer is no, you’ve gone as far as you can probably go. However, if it has a potential to seriously disrupt your business, you’ll want to saddle up with your lawyer. Another litmus test for this is likely to be the geographical location of the culprit versus the geographical scope of your service area. If you provide a service regardless of location, then you’ll likely need to take legal action no matter what.
While nothing in life is 100% certain, hopefully these suggestions and insights will be of use to your freelance life. As with all things, your mileage may vary.
Resources
- The Internet Archive
- The U.S. Copyright Office
- Copyscape
- Google Alerts
- Responding to Plagiarism
- WHOIS Lookup
- Google DMCA Notification Process
- DMCA Notification Process
You should always seek independent financial advice and thoroughly read terms and conditions relating to any insurance, tax, legal, or financial issue, service, or product. This article is intended as a guide only.
Note: A few times a month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from throughout the history of FreelanceSwitch. This article was first published May 13th, 2009, yet is just as relevant and full of useful information today.
Leave a Comment
I had exactly this situation recently, where the copy from my homepage was lifted nearly verbatim by another design firm.
I did as you suggested in your article, and initially sent an email requesting that they take it down as the material was my copyright. That was met with no reaction.
Obviously, as you imply, it wasn’t worth getting the lawyers involved, as that would have been overkill, but I wasn’t prepared to let it lie.
So I searched on their domain name, figured out where the site was being hosted, and emailed their ISP’s copyright abuse department, informing them they were hosting a site that was infringing copyrighted content. They emailed back saying they would approach the company concerned. Within three days the material was taken down, presumably because they had more clout than me.
Just thought it worth mentioning as an extra step you can often take between polite letter and lawyer.
Very Awesome information, just what I needed! Thanks so much.
Freelance writers may not want to put the “Copyright 2009 Your Legal Name. All Rights Reserved.” within submissions and articles, as many editors have told me that it indicates a beginner; veteran writers know that you automatically have these rights the moment you touch pen to paper.
However, as far as a deterrant, like on blogs or whatnot, yeah, I do that.
Good article.
From my own experience I can say that the “I have noticed the strong similarity of elements of your web site to my company’s web site…” -text works best.
Once a deviantART-user mailed me that he has reproduced one of my website templates that I’ve created for the “Magix AG”. He wanted feedback so I’m sure he had no bad attitudes but it was still a copyright violation.
So I told him friendly to remove this copy again before “Magix AG” notice it and he get problems. (Maybe a little bit exaggerated but it worked =D )
I fortunately (as far as I know!) haven’t had to deal with this yet, but I’m actually pretty sure what I would aim for, resolution-wise, is a simple attribution line on their site. I’m a big proponent of the Open Source movement, and I’m pretty sure I’d gain more from having another link back to my legitimate work than by making someone (who clearly appreciates my work) take their ‘remix’ down.
On the other hand, if it’s something that was created for a client that I am only displaying via fair use, then we might have a problem.
This article’s focus on things that are already “out there” on the Internet. However, protecting your offline work is just as important. I learned this the hard way during the 1990s. I did a website redesign proposal for a local company.
I wasn’t the only one submitting a proposal for the work. And the company that did get the job used my proposal as the guide for what they did with the site. I wasn’t happy, but that’s how this outfit operated. (They later went out of business.)
And what did Martha learn from this experience? Well, I learned to add a copyright notice to every page of my proposals. I use a footer that looks like this:
Copyright © 200N Name of my Business
While I agree it is ethically wrong to make a profit from someone else’s work, this seems like an awful lot of effort and time just to stop something that realistically doesn’t impact your income (unless they’re taking your prospective clients with portfolios of your own work). These people who do copy can only get so far without any actual skills, unless they’re actually making 1:1 copies of layouts, text, image etc.. Also, it’s good to reiterate what Allena said, copyright is inherent in anything you create. You do not need “Copyright 2009 Name” to be able to enforce it, you only need proof of creation.
I like the idea of using a Google alert for text that’s unique. Nice read.
Much of this information has been around for a while and really isn’t anything new. But there are so many designers out there not protecting their own work. I appreciate you putting these handy remidners in one place.
Thanks for reminding us all to be vigilant and mindful of our work and its representation, as well as reminding those who may be tempted to steal other’s designs that it is a very bad thing.
You know what man, I’ve learned to accept this. We gotta get over the greedy owning thinking which is so last century. It is new times now. Information is no longer property of one, but all of us. We have technologically developed ourselves to a level where everybody can access everything, but mentally, we still in the past. I tend to see this as an mind opening exercise.
If you are not making your art knowing that it will be reused, recycled, reproduced and why not copied, then you are fundamentally not making art for the 21st century. Whoever doesnt like to have their work touched by others, should never make it public, or keep it in a safebox.
Think this road goes both ways: you can also use anything you see out there on your work. And you know what, we are all doing one big thing together so you don’t own anything, actually. You are just adding stuff in to this snowball game. You throw your work on the big roll and see what happens next, what it will turn into. If nothing happens then your work is no good and nobody gave a sh*t.
So be glad if it keeps alive on this ever changing highway, ’cause that means it was good.
Static works no longer exist. Ownership? property? copyright? pfft. Don’t make me laugh! That’s medieval. We are finally getting at where we was dreaming about at the 60′s.. completely freedom, everybody owns everything, or nothing.
This is the new world buddy, and there is no turning back! It is going to be each day more like it. Legal protection are becoming useless and pathetic efforts. Pirate partys arre growing, pirate bay is huge, no body buys anything anymore… like it or not, the world is like this now and we have to addapt so we can survive!
I know it is hard. I’ve had a long time trying to deal with this. But know I’ve learned to. And I’m taking good things from it. Get rid from your possessive thoughts. Open your mind. Imagine a world with no possessions… well, it is already out there! Welcome to the future.
BUT if you really still want to resist, which I personally believe is useless, well I will give you a tip cause im no hacker nor stealer I really am a designer who believes in this new world order. One thing I used to do (before I opened my eyes) is to send myself a registered letter from as many postal services I can, with all the content of my creation inside the package. So you keep the paper proving the date you sent that stuff to yourself. NEVER OPEN THE PACKAGE!
If you have to go to court and prove you did that work BEFORE anybody else, well then you open the package in front of the judge. Not only it works, as it is a great performance to do. haha.
Well… if you donate everything you do mein freund, to the world, then who can tell you not to use whatever you please from others? yep, it is hard to accept when it comes to our things but… could be harder… think if the open marriage guys can learn to live with that.. then you can easily learn to live with this!
best,
Guess we should be flattered that our work is good enough for someone to want to steal but it is still offensive and makes me angry. I think they are thieves who never had a novel idea of their own.
Some people ignore your ideas but then later on use them to call their own. I am left speechless when that occurs. I rarely say anything except “I think I remember saying that a few weeks ago, does anyone remember that”. It usually shuts the person down until their next assault. They are just insecure people who use others for their own good. I feel sorry for them.
I faced similar problem just a couple of days ago.
In that website, all of my posts were like copy paste. I immediately contacted the site owner & asked for the immediate remove of the contents. He almost copied nearly my 10 posts as it is.
How effective is copyrighting between countries?
Setting up Google alerts is a brilliant idea. Pretty simple to do and it does the searching for you.
I wrote a similar article on my blog in April
http://www.website-and-graphic-design.com/blog/website-and-graphic-designers-protect-your-copyrights/2009/04
I’m going to add this post link to it for readers as another reference. Great advice!
One concern I sometimes have is about weather or not I am doing something fairly close to what others have done before.
Right now I am working on a project (check it out at http://www.onepostcard.com). Has anyone seen any similar projects? I know of a few, but they are different.
I think I am ok. I do, however, need people to participate in my study. Please go to http://www.onepostcard.com
Great post!!
I’m with Colin Wright on this one. Unless someone’s doing real damage, why not attempt to leverage the situation into positive vibes for everyone? The copyright violations described in the article are far from “serious threats” and, in most instances, completely unenforceable.
People who are paranoid are not going to be happy in a commercial design career. And they are really not going to be happy with the Internet!
I know that a lot of web users from artists to designers have this problem. Here is a tool that might be of use to anyone. http://www.tynt.com/ Basically it lets you know what content is being used from your site. Also, http://tineye.com/ is another site that searches through images for duplicates and also provides a link to the place where the image is posted. It is still a small site but its very good for artists looking for their pilfered images.
Protecting one’s rights doesn’t make you “paranoid.” It’s a necessary part of running a business. If you don’t protect your rights, you lose them. If you want to “open source” your content, that’s great, do it the right way with a license of your own making or a Creative Commons license. If you haven’t granted permission or licensed your work in an open way, then the offending party is committing a crime — and remember that if you can be demonstrated to be the kind of person who doesn’t defend copyright in the face of infringement, you won’t win when you do try to fight for something where it actually is important to have exclusive rights protected.
Most of the time, it is important to defend your copyrights, and it is not being paranoid. If it’s a true infringement, it’s not unenforceable. Again, if you actually want your content spread around and you want to stay in business, license the stuff as such. There are solutions available for people with both needs.
Finally, to those who insist that we all let our work go free to whoever wants to play with it: I admire your commitment to free culture and I have done the same thing in some situations (with the help of Creative Commons). But your grand sweeping insistence that doing away with copyright altogether and all the time is the “new way,” “the only way to go” or a “revolution in culture” are simply wrong. What is a revolution in culture is the notion of releasing copyrights in those situations where it is suitable. Remember which rights you keep and which you give away is a situational decision rather than an ideological one.
Joel, you’re talking about trademark genericide when you say, “If you don’t protect your rights, you lose them.”. Your copyrighted work is your copyrighted work, regardless if you defend it or not. Your work does not become public domain if someone else copies it and you do nothing, you can still defend your work to the full extent of the law if you chose to in the future.
As for freelances actively defending their copyright, I still think it’s more economically viable to use your time to produce work and make money rather than chasing down copyright infringers in order to reduce the potential damage to your income.
nice article! We just experienced this few days ago
, here’s a poor duplicate of our javascript slider: http://www.kaali.com/WebApplication2/ 
Hey Thomas, yeah, that principle I know is more relevant to trademarking, but I was told by a lawyer friend that there’ve been cases where a creator who basically encouraged people to rip off and play with his creations was denied a copyright infringement ruling because of that history. That was said in conversation though, not as legal advice, so who knows…
But my main point is to say: if you want people to copy your work, provide a license that enables them to do so (preferably with stipulations for attribution, unless you’re otherwise inclined) — otherwise the people you think are so great for copying your work are actually doing so as criminals.
I agree that one should weigh the value of their time as spent on work versus defending copyright — most of us do not own massively valuable works of literature or music that need constant, around-the-clock protection, but the system presented involving automated monitoring via Google Alerts plus a standard cease and desist email is only a few minutes out of your whole week to protect what you created and own.
Good article.
I own an ebay store, and everyday I find people stealing my ideas (mainly graphics) and I don’t know what to do. eBay doesn’t protect copyright.
At this point in my blogging journey, I wouldn’t mind if people stole what I wrote. As long as they credited me on their sites and linked it back to mine. Sometimes the best way to get word out is by giving it away for free. What’s your take on that?
@Richard I think that very few people give credit to original author. But sure, giving away free stuff (e.g. tutorials) is great way to build a good blog.
> To do this, you’ll need to actually file your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office
I though this would be a lengthy process – Does anyone know a ball park figure? would you have to submit each individual image or could you submit a group of images (say your entire portfolio) and update it every year? can you copyright css? and if you only copyright something in the US, will that mean you would have a legal case against someone in China or Europe for example?
Yes, it has happened to my content more than once! Varying from entire blocks of content to concepts and identifying phrases. I first became aware of the block of content when I lost traffic from Google to one of my popular articles. After doing a couple of Google searches, I found my copy on a Southeastern Asia website. It took me a number of emails to the administrator of that website to get them to pull MY content. And, a few weeks for Google to reindex so that their website did not come up as a listing using my content.
I’ve written an article for a forum and then seen another website take my content word for word from that forum and use it on their website. Personally, since it was my original content for a specific forum, I was not happy to see it word for word on someone elses website. And particularly not happy because I had done a lens on the topic.
Yuo are talking about U.S. Copyright Office but internet does not only exist in US and laws around the world are different…
As long as no international rules will control the internet, i’m affraid there will be no efficient solution to plagiarism…
thanks so much for the step-by-step guide. Unfortunately I don’t know whether will it work considering I’m living in another country. But still, it helps to be made aware of these sort of things.
Cheers mate.
Hi,
This is best guide for me.I am a Tech Blogger I write on web 2.0,Social media & all about tech.I was suffering with above said content thieves.Thanks to guide us.
I have not had this happen yet but I was pushed to copy competitors work at my former job. I straight up said I would not partake in copying and I have my suspicions this is why I was laid off recently. I’m laughing about it and happy to be let go. I just find it unacceptable, yet there are so many people that use the excuse that this is the way business is. It still doesn’t make it right. Thanks for the information for the future.
Im glad something like this was posted, I was never sure what to do in case this happened but this clearly documents each step just in case.
I have found that in addition to sending the owner of the infringing site a DMCA I CC their web hosting and follow up with a phone call to their web hosting company. Most web hosting companies have a much better understanding of copyright law than web site operates and will simply delete the person account saving you the trouble of going 10 rounds with the owner over fair use. If that fails I send the same notice to the web hosting companies hosting/bandwidth company. In the US virtual all Internet traffic flows though a few dozen companies all of whom respect copyright claims.
I work with someone that steals designs, makes me mad too. :/
Thanks, I was looking for the letter in polite way.
my name is being used my e-mail name yisman
All your page are belong to us
Copyright is so hard to manage as a creative graphic design agency. This gave us some great ideas. Thanks for the tips.
Dear Sir
I am a freelancer. I have designed a template on the request of a person who is my internet friend. I have designed a web template for a web site of a college in Poland which he told his own college.
I complete the design and HTML and he likes it a lot.
We exchange the emails regarding this and after completion of the work when i asked him to pay for the work firstly he said to me he will pay in two or three days. He repeat this for three or four times after that he left to respond my emails.
After two months i saw that the college is using my design as its website. They remove my name from the bottom corner of the page.
When i asked to college and request to pay they agree to pay me after discussing with that person. After discussing they aree that design is yours and we will pay you in 4 to 5 days.
But suddenly they refused to pay anything and said that your services are not good and we don’t have any contract with you.
Now i don’t know what to do?
I have all the records of the mails and chats we have exchange and there is nothing like that our services are not good etc.
So please tell me what can i do in this regard.
Thanks a lot.
Kind Regards
Sushil
I am thinking about making a derivative of someone else’s video product they put on a dvd, and sold as a tutorial product. Their product has not been on the market for about two years. The person that put the product on the market did not put a copy right on their product. Would I be liable for copy right infringement if I make a derivative of their product? Example, they made a template to navigate an interactive with their tutorial dvd. It has a certain color scheme and layout. I want to use the same template and layout to navigate my dvd tutorial product. But use a different color scheme. The content I will put in my product will mean the same. In meaning to the product I want to emulate. Example, the person use the word ‘lesson 1′ in their tutorial product. I was going to use the word ‘session 1′ in my tutorial product. The person use the work ‘review’. I was going to use the word ‘analysis’. The person use the words ‘ trend watch. I was going to use the word ‘trend observation’. The person use the words ‘ competitive Analysis’. I was going to use the words ‘ opposing analysis’. I think you get the ideal of what I am doing by replacing words. I am going to talk about the same subject. But put information into my own words. Would someone please tell me if this would be copy right infringement, or illegal?
This is a good post.
The reason I respond here is, that I discovered through Q Firefox that a website is using an image I made, on several places on that website. Plus it is done by socalled ‘hot linking’ so I’m also losing bandwidth.
I will approach the website owner and will let you know here how this contiues.
Q. What to do when someone steals your work or content?
A. Break their hands and wrists and watch them code from there
Hi guys
Here’s my original site that’s been up for years:
http://www.jacoblee.co.uk
I’ve just found this site that I feel clearly copies my site design/concept:
http://www.eventipity.com
Can I do anything in this circumstance?
Thanks
Jacob Lee
Wow, that sucks! You can tell you worked hard on that too. I don’t have any advice, but I Tweeted about it… good luck
well I’m a writer, and after i graduate highschool and graduated university im about to make a story known as Gunners which i have been working on for the last four years with hard effort, suddenly some manga author stole my name known as Gunners.
Thanks for the article. Unfortunately new designers like myself cannot afford attorneys but definitely see the benefit down the road. In the meantime just keep plugging away and if somebody steals your ideas then their creativity or lack their of will come through.
I don’t however see anything wrong with getting ideas and inspiration from other designers as I’ve hit many ‘design blocks” and went searching for new ideas. Just make sure to take those ideas as inspiration to create something new and not something stolen. Thanks again for the article.
Dear All,
Can someone please tell me, what happens if the contents of my Website is not registered or copyrighted but all the work that have been performed on my website belongs to me that is, I have created each and every content and I mention “All rights reserved AND this website is copyrighted”.
Is it so that I can mention “All rights reserved AND this website is copyrighted” only if my work of website is registered or copyrighted?
Happened with me some one had copied my T-shirt design work in US and selling for 27$ as i am using a free copyright service. How can i avail this type of copyrights issue? Help
These people are scumbags that steal web designs. I own a branded product which happens to be my first product development project. I had one guy basically jack my custom design that I worked hard on but redo it slightly and brand the same products. I decided his site was changed enough that I would not have a case. Now, I have another scumbag who has done the same thing only his changes were VERY subtle with the design so much that I believe I will be asking politely and then pursuing legal action any way I can that won’t cost a ton.
I’d rather redesign again than spend a shit tone on lawyers, but I love my design and obviously noobs do too. The second guy also is promoting the same three products and naming them the same thing. I understand I will have competition and that’s fine, but I fear these sites will confuse potential buyers since product, pricing, and design is very close to the same. The content and pictures are only changed slightly as well. They are devaluing my brand. Its 1:38am and I can’t sleep because Im so pissed. We need to be able to trademark a web design somehow…this is ridiculous. Lazy marketers that don’t realize they are devaluing their own brand too because it looks like the generic version of someone elses.
@FreelanceSwitch… it would be a good idea to put the notice about the date of actual publishing at the top of the article not plain and easy to skip at the bottom… just saying… Why?… Well, you’re the pros. Figure it out
Ooh so many comments! Designers don’t like getting their work ripped off do they?
Well here’s my two cents:
http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/
If you want to publicly shame your rippers, check out You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice. It’s also just a fun read when you’re bored.
Thank you for the Google Alerts tip – I’ve been doing it on some other things for a while (and the titles of some of my publications) but adding in a random sentence or two from the works is a great addition if ya’ll don’t already have that set up.
Google – the ever vigilant Copyright infringement agent.
Oh and I recently been through a round of someone yanking my content over to their (school!) website. I nicely (non-threatening) worded email was all it took to get it down by the next day. Never underestimate the power of being a friendly and concerned neighbor.
Thanks for the great post and have a great day!
These are just amazing tips and I can tell that this topic has created waves of reactions from fellow designers. Thankfully, being a newbie in the design arena, I haven’t experienced anything like it. As tempting as it is, It appears easier for freelancers to just copy ideas with the hopes of being unnoticed. I am really thankful I was able to read this in my earlier days as a web designer.
Great article. Very thankful that I haven’t experienced anything like this as I always put some signatures or watermark on most of my design work.
I am wondering if someone can help me please???
I used to work for a company where I designed products and wrote manufacturing specifications for these products (probably over 500+).
A couple of years ago the company went into administration and a fellow worker gained access to all my designs and is now working at another company re-producing my work – I occasionally get texts off him asking questions like What is this, how do i do this etc
Have I got any grounds to ask for compensation and /or are they allowed to do this without my prior consent??
Hi I work for a company that deliver’s food to people’s homes. There are several farmer’s markets in our city. Our comapny is a vendor at them. I wrote up a business plan and have organized our own Farmer’s Market which our company will run. I have done all the work on this Farmer’s Market. I got the location. I have talked obtained all the vendors. I have got all the quotes from Radio Stations and News Paper Advertising. I have gone and gotten all the permits for the markets. My company has not paid me anything on this and now my Sales Manager has decideded to take my position as the Market Manager. He did not do anything to get this market. The company stands to make alot of many from this. The only thing the company has done is they paid for permits. The Market is in their name. I would like to know if there is anything I can do about this. They have never done anything like this in 132 years. I feel like I was used and my idea stolen from me.
Glad to find this article since one of my many worries is precisely the growing habit of copy/paste form other people.
I discover as well how to protect your pictures by doing a Image search through Google Images, instantly you see how many sites are using your material without consent. Really works great.
More difficult is to avoid people from stealing your thumb with a successful video… they upload it again immediately and get more attention and even monetize something you just wanted to share for no profit. A good example is videos with kids…
I just think that many decide not to create or share anymore… and that is sad.
Just wondering what I can do on situation, where I have invented a never been done internet process and someone stole it?
Hi. Copyright has always made my eyes spin in my head — written prior to, after, less than x number of words unless it contains the heart of the material. This is my problem. I’m a bestselling author. One quote in particular from one of my books has taken off like the proverbial rocket (jet-fueled). It’s appearing on web sites around the world, in blogs, etc. I have no problem with this when people are using it for non-commerical purposes and attribute. However, recently I was approached by a company to use this quote in a journal and to my knowledge, this one quote comprises the sole “writing” in the book. This quote is one I’ve frequently thought about creating products around — but I just haven’t had the time. Coffee cups, calendars, bracelets — they’d go. My publisher doesn’t think the word length of the quote is enough to make a fuss about. I think the vast popularity of the quote, and someone using it as the sole marketing technique for a product, is just plain wrong — blatantly wrong. I’m positive it comprises far more than 10 percent (more like 90 to 100 percent) of the total writing in the project. Right now, you could put this quote on anything and it would sell the product. What are your thoughts? I know if I can come up with sound rationale, I can get the publisher to get their legal staff behind me and yes I know, I shouldn’t have to do this work — but I do. And it just does not sit right in my gut to let someone else create subsidiary works around my quote and benefie commerically from it. Like I said — more power to them if they’re using the quote in service to others and for non-commerical purposes, but this feels wrong. Thanks for any help.