Business owners often want to create written materials or online content to promote their companies. With so much material already available in the marketplace, it can be tempting to take something created by another company, slap on your own name, and use it. Problem is, that’s plagiarism – you know, the thing your professors screamed about in school. If you do it, you leave your company open to nasty litigation. Even the threat of plagiarism is costly, both financially and to a company’s reputation.
This is a VERY simplified guide to help you avoid plagiarism. If you are unsure or have questions, we advise our clients to seek an attorney regarding these matters. Avail Assistants does NOT give legal advice.
What is a copyright?
To plagiarize you have to violate someone’s copyright, and that is not what a lot of people think it is. When something original is created, the person who created it or the person who paid for its creation owns that material and the rights to use it and sell it. The second the new material is created, the creator owns the copyright. This means from the moment the artist applies brush to canvas, the writer hits “save,” or the photographer presses the shutter, that person owns the copyright.
Establishing copyright
Technically, you could prove you owned a copyright simply by mailing something to yourself. The postmark establishes that the contents of the package were created no later than the date of that postmark. But it’s FAR better to register material with the United States Copyright Office. The Copyright Office’s FAQ section is enlightening. Registration also extends your copyright so that the material does not pass quickly into the public domain.
Defining plagiarism
The United States Copyright Office provides this advice on how to determine if you can claim copyrighted material:
You may make a new claim in your work if the changes are substantial and creative, something more than just editorial changes or minor changes. This would qualify as a new derivative work. For instance, simply making spelling corrections throughout a work does not warrant a new registration, but adding an additional chapter would.
Plagiarizing something occurs not only when you copy material word-for-word. In fact, one frequent reason people end up in court is for PARTIAL plagiarism. Did you use a whole paragraph you lifted from someone else in your multi-page document? Or did most of the words in your promotional materials come from an existing source with a few minor changes? Both cases could be considered a legal violation.
What does that mean for me?
If you are creating something based on material that already exists, AND you intend to use that new creation to make money or promote a money-making venture, you MUST be extremely cautious. With that in mind:
- You can’t just take a sentence, change a word or two, and say it’s new material. The content must be obviously different to meet the standard of changes that are substantial and creative.
- Change more than the formatting. Don’t simply shift around paragraphs, or add bullets and subheads, or move the order of material and claim a piece is different.
- Add new information. It’s best if you add information that is NOT present in the original material. For example, guidelines for customers or photos and charts that YOU created that illustrate a point. This helps to establish that the changes are substantial, although they aren’t a guarantee.
- References are acceptable for some public resources. Reports by the federal government and most governmental agencies may be reproduced, although it’s wise to reference the source.
- There are items considered to be common knowledge. Certain facts are readily available from numerous sources. For example:
- Documents needed to apply for a loan
- A list of the three major credit bureaus
- Names of restaurants in a mall or shopping area
- A recipe, as in a list of ingredients.
- Basic mathematical and science formulas, like πr2.
- Use images you own. Either create the images yourself or pay someone else to photograph or draw them. Don’t steal images from the internet. Wonderful, high-quality images can be inexpensively purchased from www.iStock.com.
- When in doubt, don’t. If you aren’t sure, you can bet someone on a jury won’t be either. And that can be costly. Better to be safe than sorry.