Protect Your Blogs Content

Build A Better Blog Day 27

Today's tip is a reminder to protect your blogs content. Over time you till undoubtedly create a large amount of content. You may want some of that content protected by copyright and some you may not. It all depends on what's important to you and what's not. However I would establish a terms of use statement on your blog just so everyone knows how you want your content treated. Will this stop someone from stealing your content? Absolutely not.

There is a great post over at DailyblogTips about Copyright Laws and blog content. I'm not a lawyer and I don't really want to get into a pissing match with Lawyers out there, but there are some good points in this article none the less. Here are a few ideas I like:

1. Make sure if you use someone else's material you either get written permission (this is pretty much what I do) or the material is explicitly marked public domain. You may lose any copyright to your own content if you use someone else's material.


2. Clearly mark on your site what is public domain and what's not. It may be that none of your material is public domain or all of it is. That's why I encourage you to create a static page, or some type of post that states you terms of use. I didn't have one until this post, now I do.


3. If you don't want to defend certain published material, don't make it available to the public. Did that make sense? Really, if you don't want the hassle of chasing down people that steal blog content, then don't post something. A good example may be an Author who posts a book, story or article. They may claim it's copyright but will have to battle anyone who uses it without permission, every time.


4. Do ask someone who has stolen you content to remove it or give you proper acknowledgment. This may be tricky but its the fight you may have to take on.


5. Remember images have a copyright too. Taking images from other sites and using them may put your content at risk. Again I would get some type of permission before using images. And refrain from directly linking to an image unless given permission. This puts an unwanted strain on the images web server.

The better your writing get and the more visitors your blog gets the more your content's copyright will play in the success of your blog. However, don't let copyright get in the way of blogging. Just make sure you have all the permissions you need, and you state your contents use and you should be pretty good.

Learn more about Creative Commons here, and view a presentation on blog content copyright given at the Bloggin4Business Conference by Rand Bateman.

I'm sure there are some lawyers out there who can add to this. What are your thoughts on blog copyrights?

Problogger's day twenty-seven post: Find a Sponsor for Your Blog