Blogger: Rachel Kent
It’s easy to forget the basics of seeking permission when it comes to using the internet. Photographs of everything are a mouse-click away, and I’ll admit that I’m guilty of clicking “accept these terms and conditions” without reading them all. But some rules need to be followed to stay legal online; here are five ways it’s easy to break the rules accidentally.
1) IMAGES: If you frequently use images on Pinterest or your blog, be sure that you have the right to use the pictures before you put them up. Doing a Google search for an image and finding one without a copyright or watermark on it doesn’t mean it’s yours for the taking. The best way to find royalty free images is to sign up for a stock photo account–and you can always take pictures yourself.
2) NEWSLETTERS: When you add contacts to your e-newsletter list, you must have that person’s permission to add the address and you also need to include an unsubscribe button in every note you send. Newsletter programs like MailChimp.com or ConstantContact.com prompt you to follow the CAN-SPAM act, which details these rules. It’s best to use programs like these when possible.
3) FACEBOOK PROMOTIONS: When you host a contest, party, giveaway or promotion on Facebook, you must do so on an app that’s not part of the Facebook platform. Facebook isn’t constantly policing pages for promotions like this (that I know of), but if you are caught breaking this rule, your page will be shut down, and you might be banned from Facebook use.
4) BLOG QUOTES: When you find a blog with an interesting quote or content that you want to highlight on your own blog, give credit and link back to the original blogger’s post. Depending on the size of the quote, you might need to ask for permission to use it. I’d say that for anything longer than a sentence or two you should ask for permission or summarize the idea in your own words and link to the page so your reader can check out the post if he or she is interested in reading more. There’s no hard and fast rule here (that I know of), so it’s better to be cautious when quoting another blogger’s work. Quoting poetry and songs is also a place to be careful. You need to be sure the content is in the public domain to use more than two lines without permission.
Be safe rather than sorry in all of these areas.
How do you make sure you are following internet rules?
Do you have other recommendations of ways we can keep internet use legal?
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Great reminders Rachel. What about book give-aways on FB? Does that fall under promotion too? What kind of app would one use to for something like this on FB?
oops I have a typo. “would one use–for something” (not. enough. coffee. yet!) 🙂
Anne, I’ve seen friends use Rafflecopter for contests on FB. Don’t know much about it, but it’s worth looking into. Also, you can direct readers back to your website with a link for a contest.
I’ve used Rafflecopter once, and it’s fairly easy. But it was on my blog, and I simply mentioned it on Facebook. I’m wondering as well, what about giving away prizes for a FB party?
I use Rafflecopter all the time. I love it. The one challenge is that you can’t add the code to free WordPress sites. You have to have a paid domain name in order to use Rafflecopter on a WP site. Thankfully, most of my blogs are with Blogger.
One other thing about giveaways and such. We had a blogger whose blog was shut down by the hosting company because she participated in book tours without enough unique content and they saw her blog as a spam site. Not sure if anyone has heard the term book blast before, but our company offers them as an alternative to a traditional virtual book tour. Bloggers like them because there are no interviews, reviews, or guest posts involved. It’s just a copy and paste ready post that all the bloggers use. Here is an example of what I’m talking about: http://cherylschristianbookconnection.blogspot.com/2013/03/thy-kingdom-come-book-blast-and-giveaway.html
The poor blogger who was participating in all these book blasts and offering fun contests to her readers, ended up having to start over with a new blog.
Just something to keep in mind about contests and giveaways.
Book giveaways are promotions as well.
And Facebook parties as well–with or without prizes.
I don’t know much about Rafflecopter, but I do know you can google creating apps for Facebook and you can find some relatively easy and cheap options to do it yourself.
Please give people the recognition they deserve. I looked at Ancestry.com the other day–a place I’d never been before — and saw all sorts of my unattributed work. I’d shared it with distant kin with one proviso–they needed to give me credit.
Apparently some felt free to give away work I’d spent years researching.
Very disappointing.
Today on my blog I include an historic photograph of Dolley Madison that I could legally use, with links to two others that are copyrighted. The post isn’t as powerful without them, but I sleep at night.
Earlier this week I included a video of Helen Keller. I hunted high and low for where it came from. As it turned out, the YouTube link brought up the video (must be a WordPress feature?), but I explained my hunt for the owner. I hope that was sufficient . . . I looked a long time.
Journalists, writers, musicians and artists should be dead-on serious about respecting copyright– it’s our livelihood. Thanks for a quick overview, Rachel, on an important topic.
Thanks for weighing in! Sorry your work was stolen!
This is an important topic. I also think it’s good for newer bloggers to remember that it IS okay to share information on their site as long as they do it legally.
For instance, if I find an article I want to discuss on my blog, I’ll mention what struck me about it, type the title of the article, and link the title back to the original post (with author attribution whenever possible). I might quote a short passage from the article too–short being the key word!
I don’t touch lyrics or anything musical. The laws scare me. 🙂
I think if you link back and give credit, most people feel honored that their work sparked conversation. It’s also a way to bring more traffic to them. When done right, it can be a great thing!
I agree, Lisa! It’s always flattering to see someone appreciate your work. 🙂
Yes, thanks for the reminder, Jill!
A long time ago I wrote an article for a church newsletter that somehow ended up in a church newsletter in another state, without permission or attribution. When contacted, the editor said he did not think it was necessary to get permission since we were all “doing it for Christ.” Umm…
Jenny, you should ask that person if he thought it okay to take things from a store owned by Christians without paying for it. Many people don’t understand that writing is a job and the laborer is worthy of his hire.
Yikes!
Thank you, Rachel. I’ve resolved in the past to only use my own photos on my blog, but find myself in a hurry often lately, and resort to online ones. What do you think about those on Creative Commons? I always use the attribution text that they provide …
And I love to include quotes on my blog about whatever is inspiring me at the moment! Thank you for reminding me to keep them very brief!
I don’t know if this helps, but I find photos for my blog on freedigitalphotos.net. You give attribution and it’s pretty easy to use. I also have gone to morguefile.com for free photos. 😉 I use my own pics when I can too.
Thank you, Jeanne, I’ll take a lot at those sources!
Angela, I use Flickr’s Creative Commons all the time. I’ve read through the licensing agreement extensively. As long as you include attribution to the photo’s owner and link it back to the photo’s Flickr page, you’re legally allowed to use it. (Ex: hyperlink the following text: “Photo by John Doe”)
There are restrictions on editing the photo, depending on which licensing section you use. 🙂
These are helpful tips, as I’ve struggled in recent months with finding photos that are okay to use on my blog–thank you, ladies!
Thanks, Jill,
I do enjoy using Creative Commons …
I haven’t used Creative Commons, but I know there are a lot of free photo sharing sites out there with great pics.
Flickr, I believe, used to have a section for images that were divided amongst useable with permission, useable as long as credited to the owner, etc.
However, the problem with that is being unsure whether or not the images uploaded really are the property of whomever uploaded the images.
I like your suggestion, Rachel, of using images one photographs, draws, (or commissions) oneself.
I just don’t get how writers or others who are content creators feel that they are not obligated to disclose who they are quoting, etc. If they put any effort into their own work, they should be willing to give credit to those who put effort into the work they are using.
I won’t be drawing anything to be shown online! Unless we’re discussing really bad art. 🙂
And I agree! It’s horrible that people think they can use another person’s work without at least asking first–let alone offering a little $$ for it. And when it comes to quoting, it is so easy to put a name or a link, yet so many people don’t because they don’t think anyone will notice that the work isn’t theirs.
This gets so frustrating at times. So many what-ifs.
We can post photos of book covers and professional shots of authors, back cover copy, etc–because it’s promotion.
And yet quoting a song is not considered promotion? Many times I’ve rushed to download a song from iTunes after seeing it quoted on Facebook. I know, I know…it’s senseless to argue with the law.
What about embedding a Youtube video–assuming it’s the official video downloaded by the band?
I’d say embedding an official video from YouTube is just fine–as long as it’s official. 🙂 And you can always link to lyrics on a lyric site or the band’s webpage. That way you aren’t breaking the rules and if the lyric site is, they’re the ones at fault. I’m pretty sure that many of them have permission from the record companies, however. I don’t know all of the details.
Rachel, this is very helpful. I’ve been trained by friends to be very careful what I download or quote from the internet in my blog. As I mentioned above, I download photos from sites that allow me to do so, either at a price or for free (I prefer the latter! 😉 ).
I didn’t know about what you shared regarding promotions on FB. I’m so glad you mentioned that.
In general, I try to be very cautious about using other peoples’ stuff. Thanks for making me think more about this.
Thanks for commenting! 🙂
What great information. The other thing to watch for is music. iMovie is great for making movies, but if you add unlicensed music you might not be able to even post it to facebook or YouTube. I use Animoto Pro because I know it will make my videos sharable .
So glad to learn that about newsletters..I am totally going to print this off and make a checklist of things I need to pay attention to in the future!
I’ve seen people get in trouble for using music in videos posted on YouTube without getting permission.
Good reminder!
So many things to think about, and you don’t have to have a law school education to know how difficult legal entanglements can be. In the past several months, I’ve decided just to take all my own photos. My children help me decide what might be appropriate and then set it up. I think readers like it more as well since it gives them a glimpse into my personal life. (Of course, I’m careful in what I post.) Thanks for the post, Rachel.
Fun that it’s a family project too! 🙂
Great reminders, Rachel. In addition to using my own photos at my blog, I often shop for free clip art or use istockphoto. The cartoonish nature of clip art is good for my busy mom’s blog, but not for some of my others.
Yes! Clip art can work well too, but you need to find the free stuff. There are webpages out there with lots of options.
The interwebs is a legal black hole!
I try to use stock (I just typed ‘sock’) photos or my own. I occasionally share something I’ve seen on FB or Pinterest, but I try to be very careful.
I do use my own Youtube videos, but those are mostly vlogs.
It is a legal black hole! Most people get away with a lot of illegal activity, but when you get caught it can really hurt.
Thanks for all these good reminders, Rachel!
You are welcome!
The “free” photo sites I’ve looked at have enough gobbly gook in their instructions to make my head spin.
Just when I think I have everything figured out about what I can do and how to do it, they through in an “except for…” or an “in most cases.”
As a result, my blogs are photoless — except for when I personally took it.
Most of mine are photoless as well. Better safe than sorry.
Wow. I didn’t realize how easy it is to break the law on the internet. Thanks for these helpful hints, Rachel!
Blessings,
Andrea
I always use my own photos to stay on the safe side, but Wikimedia Commons is a site through Wikipedia where you can use public domain photos, as long as you credit them correctly. You can also donate your photos for other people to use.
Good reminder. Pinterest often brings the links to the images or at least most of the time.
For photos I exclusively use the public domain. I link the picture to the original address and add a title that says:
Whatever photo’s name courtesy of whatever Photographer.
It is more time consuming to find the right pic, but it’s legal.
http://publicdomainpictures.net/
is really great and they only charge $1 for photos that are not free.
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