A Guide To Blogging: Whose blog is it anyway?

With new technology comes new legal wranglings. The copyright of web content is often thought to be a legal grey area, but really, it isn’t that complicated at all.

Copyright law protects ‘works’.
Those works range from sculptures and paintings to web copy.
Websites themselves are not works, but the text, pictures and other artwork are, and so are protected. So, web copy is not an anomaly; just because it is virtual doesn’t mean anyone can steal it.

This is all very well, but what really throws a cat among the pigeons is blogging. Yes, you create your material when you publish a blog, but as the website, i.e. the blog hosting service, owns the site, do they own the copyright to your work too?

Generally, it is quite straightforward.
Under the laws of copyright, all works are protected as soon as they are created, automatically. Hosting sites do not own the copyright, and often take no legal responsibility for content posted on their site. That might seem odd, but if you read the terms of service for most blog hosting sites, users agree by ticking the terms of service not to publish offensive or adult material, and the host reserves the right to remove anyone doing so.

Many host sites actively encourage bloggers to protect their own work, as, in turn, they ask bloggers to respect the host site’s copyright (to logos, the name of the site etc).

Creative Commons Configurator
Wordpress offers a special service for people who believe their work has been plagiarised by a Wordpress blogger to complain and have it removed. The hosting site also offers the Creative Commons Configurator, a plugin that allows you to create your own Creative Commons Licence for free and within minutes. This will help to protect your content from copyright thieves.

The real legal grey area with online content copyright is social networking. Here, facebook, the king of all social networking sites, very nearly did something that very few others have done; claim the copyright for all information from all users as its own.

This was done almost without asking permission either. The decision to change the terms and conditions of use of facebook to automatically assign copyright for content – including notes, photos and all manner of personal data – caused uproar, and the ambitious facebook staff quickly backed down and dropped the changes. Still, it is important to keep an eye on developments like this, and it is always wise, whatever content you are creating, to check the terms and conditions before signing up to a host.

To consider:
- All work you create or you commission belongs to YOU, you own the material
- Check, double check the terms and conditions of any contract to ensure that the copyright is with YOU. If it’s not clear, make it clear
- No online material can belong to someone else UNLESS they reference you and the source
- Create keywords so you can monitor internet content to make sure no-one is stealing your work
- Request link-backs if someone uses your content
- Always check changes in law to make sure YOU still own the material