All the time I see people steal from other people on the Internet by reposting their articles, stories, or photos. Before you post any other information on your website or use it in your book, you have to get a license. Yes, there are such things as public and fair use, but it is always best to be safe regardless. Before you decide to use something that belongs to someone else and risk angering that person and facing a potential lawsuit, ask yourself a few questions:

1. Do I really need this piece of information, poetry, cartoon, or whatever it is? Will my book or website to be fine without it?

2. This is part of the public?

3. If it is not in the public domain, I can use part of the Fair Use Act?

4. Can I rewrite or reword the piece and then reprint it?

5. Is to give credit enough?

Let’s look at each of these questions in detail.

Do I really need this piece of information? Will my book or website to be fine without it?

I can almost guarantee that each position information, documents, poems, cartoon, or whatever it is, is something you can do without. Why someone else’s property to show your own? Employ your phone cartoonist, artist, or write your own poems. If you can not do it, then look for one in public. However, if you absolutely want to hide something that is copyrighted, then be prepared to pay for it. You need to contact the owner or his or her heirs for permission, and you’ll probably write some kind of document promising you just have to use what you are given permission to do so. You also usually have to pay to use it, especially if it is for commercial purposes, such as in the book that you want to sell, and you’ll usually pay dear for it in the hundreds of dollars or more is not uncommon. At that price, you really need to include it in the book or on your website?

This is part of the public?

Just what constitutes the public? It varies by country and what kind of work it is. Today, authors, copyright in the United States for life plus 70 years, so if I were to die tomorrow, it will be in 2012, something that I would write copyrighted in 2082 However, copyright laws were more liberal in the past so some work may have shorter copyright has expired. As a rule, if the author or artist has been dead since 1941 or earlier, you are probably safe, but it still never hurts to investigate. Furthermore, while the old works like “Don Quixote” may be in the public domain, that does not mean the modern translation of the.

What constitutes fair use?

If the work is not in the public domain, a lot of the time you can still use a small part of it, if any, as well as a reference or a means, not usually go to the page. That said, a short work like poetry can not be used in its entirety despite the short length because you must use all your work, but you might be able to quote a verse or a verse of it. Even so, in such cases it is best to play it safe and ask for permission to quote a book or work on your own. What constitutes fair use depends on many conditions including: the purpose of its use, whether it is commercial or charitable, if the quote is used to promote the work as a book review, or if your use of the will hurt sales any other book because you can see too much information from him.

To go directly to the source, here’s what 1961 Report Register copyright General Review of US copyright law cites as an example of fair use

“quote passages in a review or criticism for explanation or comment; quotation short chapters in scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of observations of the author, use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with short quotations, in a news report, reproduction by the collection part of the work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of the work to show a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a news reel or radio, the work located in the scene event reporting “(Source: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html ).

There are always fine lines in use someone else’s work. Even if you are sure that it falls under fair use law, if it is not in the public domain, it is best to ask for permission to use the work, and if it seems impractical, it is always best to consult a lawyer.

Can I rewrite or reword the piece and then print it?

You may paraphrase works by giving an overview of the basic idea, if you give credit to the source, but you can not rewrite someone else’s work and pass it off as your own, or even as their place it is rewritten. And even when you rephrase the idea, it is still an idea someone else (Intellectual property) so you have to give credit where it is due.

is to give credit enough?

No, it is not enough to give credit. You have permission to reprint as well, but as stated above, it is in the public domain. You must always give credit to the owner, whether it is the author, year of publication, artist, another website, etc. It is usually enough to state that the original creator or copyright holder of the work. For poetry, providing the title and author’s name. For the passage from a book, you state, “George Smith says in his book” Brilliant My ideas, “to:” It depends on your own book or a website, you may want to consult a repair manual on how best to quote the source. “The Chicago Manual of Style” is the preferred style guide to use for most books, but others are on the kind of book you’re writing, such as “Publication Manual American Psychological Association” (APA style) or “Christian Writers Manual Style . “If you get a license to reproduce copyrighted material, be sure to ask the owner how are you referring to permission to reprint the work.

Always find out if work is copyrighted and always give credit where it is due. Then you will avoid the problem of fair use infringement of copyright infringement and plagiarism later come back to haunt you.