Web fun-duh-mentals 101: When Copyright is wrong
Quick recap of previous Web fun-duh-mentals 101 articles:
So you’ve gone an stuck copyright onto every page of your website. Did you ever wonder why? If your answer is because everyone else is did it. Who is everyone else? Imagine this, you’ve launched your website and it is an instant hit. Every Tom, Dick and Harry wants in on what you are doing and wants to share it with all their friends via their blog or even on Facebook. You probably went and copy/pasted the terms and conditions from some other site which usually includes something like this:
COPYRIGHTS
You acknowledge and agree that all content and materials available on this site are protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents, trade secrets, or other proprietary rights and laws. Except as expressly authorized by CoMp4ny name, you agree not to sell, license, rent, modify, distribute, copy, reproduce, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, publish, adapt, edit, or create derivative works from such materials or content. Notwithstanding the above, you may print or download one copy of the materials or content on this site on any single computer for your personal, non-commercial use, provided you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices. Systematic retrieval of data or other content from this site to create or compile, directly or indirectly, a collection, compilation, database or directory without written permission from CoMp4ny name is prohibited. In addition, use of the content or materials for any purpose not expressly permitted in these Terms of Use is prohibited.As noted above, reproduction, copying, or redistribution for commercial purposes of any materials or design elements on this site is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of CoMp4ny name. Permission is granted only when certain limited criteria are met.
Stop right there. So if you want bloggers to talk about you they have to ask permission 1st? Imagine this: hundreds of emails a day of people asking your permission to use or mention your new website & 100’s of 1000’s of people breaking the law you copy/pasted in place because of you terms and conditions?
In the web 2.0 world we live in copyright is wrong sometimes. What to do? No worries, ther is an alternative to old school copyright.
Hello Creative Commons.
The vision of Creative Commons South Africa is of a thriving African internet community using Creative Commons licenses to educate our people, grow our markets, share our knowledge and celebrate Africa ’s culture and heritage with people around the world.
With the various version of the Creative commons license you are allowed to keep your rights without restricting useof your Intellectual Property.
Your Web AddiCT(s); have released all content available via this blog under the Creative commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 South Africa license which means you are free to:
- to Share � to copy, distribute and transmit the work
- to Remix � to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
- Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
- Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
- Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.
Creative Commons have made it really easy for you to get a proper license for your work without having to consult your lawyers. All you need to do is complete this form to custom-build your very own Creative commons license. which will give you all the rights you need without restrictions and costs you do not need.
This
work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
[Update]
Paul Jacobson has written an awesome post about why bloggers should use creative commons
[/Update]