12 Feb Bloggers – Intellectual property and using content
With the rise of blogging in Australia there are many confused with the grey legal areas in terms of what images can be used, what content can be copied etc….
We have done the research and put together a few useful links that we think is good reading before starting up your own blog;
Intellectual property and using content
When you are developing content for your online presence or marketing campaign, it is a good idea to pay careful attention to where the content comes from, who owns it and whether the owners agree for you to use it.
If you or your employees develop your own material, then you should be able to use it as you wish. If you contract another person to develop material for you, you should make sure you have a written agreement that clearly states who owns the intellectual property rights in that material. If you find material somewhere else—for example, online or through a stock photo library—then the intellectual property rights in that material probably belong to someone else.
Intellectual Property law (with some exceptions) requires that you obtain permission from the copyright owner (or relevant rights holder) before using copyright material. In the first instance, it is a good idea to check whether any general license terms apply to the material to see if you have the necessary permission (for example, if the material is licensed under a Creative Commons licence then you generally may use it as long as you comply with the terms of the license). In other cases, you may need to find the owner of the intellectual property rights in the material and ask for permission to use the material. In some cases, permission to use the material may be granted upon payment of a license fee.
