I feel this is an important topic which most award program owners take very seriously. I am not a lawyer, nor do I pretend to be. The material found in this topic is information I have learned while running an awards program.

This article is not intended to teach you specific copyright laws, but rather to give you some guidelines which may help you to avoid a copyright infringement.

What is copyright? Copyright in common terms simply means the right to copy. The rights to copy usually belong to the creator of a specific item such as a graphic, text, coding, scripts, etc... The right to copy can be extended to any individual if the initial copyright holder grants permission first.

What is copyrighted on the net? Everything basically, If it is found on a website, then chances are there are copyrights attached to it.

a.. Graphics: The initial creator of a graphic holds the original copyright to it. The initial creator then has the right to say, "Yes, go ahead and copy freely" or "Nope, hands off, it's mine". Check the sites copyright policies before you nab that cute picture of a teddy bear dancing or a pro wrestler slamming his buddy. There may be restrictions in place which prohibit you from copying these materials.

b.. Free Graphics: No such thing! For example... I offer "free" graphics on this site. They may be reproduced to your hearts desire, but you do not own the copyright to the original graphic, I do. You do however hold the copyright to the new formatted graphic.

c.. Text: All text found on a website are copyrighted at the time of production by their original creators. For example... The text you are reading right now is copyrighted material. Always check the sites copyright policies before copying any text from a website.

d.. Coding & Scripts: Yup, these are protected also. If you see a site that offers "free" scripts, check their usage policies and leave the copyright information which is inserted into the code intact. Removal of the copyright information from any source code or script is a direct infringement on their material.

e.. Other issues: Copyright is not limited to those items listed above. Any material which resides on a web page, more often than not, it will have copyrights in place.

I am not sure if this item is copyrighted? If it does not state somewhere on the site that it isn't, then always assume that it is. In short, if there is no copyright information about the particular item, leave it where it is. There is the possibility that the material may have been "ripped off" another site, then there is already an infringement on that item.

How can I prevent myself from infringing on others? Simply put, very, very carefully! Read the sites copyright and legal policies, after all that's what they are there for. If in doubt, write the author and ask permission, chances are the author will go ahead and give you permission anyway.

Read all their material carefully, sometimes all they require is a link back to their site or a simple acknowledgement somewhere on your own site. The majority of authors will accommodate your request as a common courtesy, but "steal" their property and they can become madder than a junk yard dog.

Example 1 I walk into your backyard "your property" and eye your new barbecue "your property", thinking "hey, that would look great on my patio. I snatch it up and run off to roast some wieners on "my" new barbecue. If this scenario were true, I would be charged with theft of private property. All I had to do was ask and I'm sure you would have let me roast those wieners without worrying about the cops.

Example 1 I visit your website "your property" and eye a flashy new graphic or a few lines of text "your property", and snatch it up thinking it would make a great addition to my site. That my friends is also stealing. Digital property is protected as well as hard matter property.

Conclusion: I have had my copyrights violated several times in the past. All were resolved with little or no difficulty. I was flattered that someone thought my material was good enough to "borrow", but I was also angered to find out that I had been infringed upon. The most common excuse is, "I didn't know it belonged to anyone, the site said for free, so I just took it". This is where common sense comes into play. Take a moment and validate the copyright information, take all necessary steps to comply with the authors copying policies, above all BE SURE! Protect yourself and preserve the copyrights of others at all times.

Tom Lyall

Author Bio...
Owner and creator of CQD Awards and the retired TLTC Wild Adventure Awards, Tom is currently retraining as a Computer Aided Mechanical Design Engineer.