I face one issue regularly while blogging: how to treat online content created by other people, and how to let others treat online content created by me. Copying and pasting written content online is easy, so sometimes it is tempting to use someone else’s writing in your own. While giving credit to other people is a good idea, does giving credit to someone automatically justify the use of other people’s content?

I recently saw an article by Daniel that listed 12 things you should know about copying and using things online. That article made me realize that having good intentions alone does not make people who copy with good intentions innocent.

Copyright Laws are not supposed to be confusing

One thing I like about Daniel’s simple list is that it is a simple list. Copyright laws are usually written and explained in complicated ways. Such complication confuses people. One thing you may get a sense of, while reading the list, is that Copyright Laws have nothing to do with morality. When you deal with the law, your point of view or your ethical beliefs usually do not matter. That is why when you use someone else’s work or you see someone else using your work, you should not focus on your intentions or emotions. You should focus on what rights others have, and the legal steps you can take to ensure the legal protection of your content.

If you have good intentions and copy something, will you be held accountable?

I think we should think about one important dilemma: what if your intentions were good, but you still did something that the Copyright Law prohibits? What if you used someone’s pictures on your MySpace profile without knowing that you need permission? What if you tell someone via email that they “can quote an article” from your site, and in response that person quoted your entire article and added a simple line or two to make it a bit more unique. How can you defend yourself in such cases, even though your intentions may have been good?

I guess, because of such things, we have to take precautions and make sure on a regular basis that no one is stealing our work. Having good intentions is good, but actions are sometimes more powerful than thoughts. Legally, Copyright Laws are only powerful when you are willing to legally enforce them. You should sometimes treat your work as if you were writing essays at a University. You can show your work to others, but you also have to make sure that other people who are also writing essays do not copy something from you. You also want to make sure you do not copy from others without following proper quoting procedures, as the person reading your essay will also read all the other essays from where you copied something from.

What is your opinion on this?