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US flag Using internet material

Copyright law covers materials published on the internet. Many people consider copyright law inadequate to deal with the realities of electronic communication today, but it takes time to change the law. So, what can we do with internet materials and what are our liabilities for infringing another's copyright?

Some common assumptions are wrong

Many people assume that everything on the internet is public domain. This is wrong. Simply pressing the save key creates a copyrighted work. Once expression is committed to a tangible medium (and computer media is considered tangible), copyright protection is automatic. So, postings of all kinds are protected the same as published printed works.

Implied and express licenses to use internet materials

Whenever you post anything on the internet, you should reasonably expect that it will be read, downloaded, printed out, forwarded, and even used as the basis for other works to some degree. So, just by posting, you by implication grant a limited license to use your work in this manner. Think about the rights a newspaper editor has to publish a "letter to the editor." The author of the letter probably did not include a line in the letter giving the editor an express permission to publish it, but anyone who sends one must be presumed to understand that this is what happens to them.

On the other hand, most authors would not think that posting a work automatically gives consent to commercial use of it without permission. This is not part of what one reasonably expects, and so it's not part of the implied license.

The trouble with implied licenses is that their boundaries are vague. Is the right to create derivatives in or out? What about large-scale nonprofit distribution? Implied licenses are vital to the operation of the internet, but they are not as good as express licenses, licenses that spell out in detail what rights the author of a work wants users to have. You can easily give your works an express license by attaching a Creative Commons license to the materials you upload. It's easy and it sends the message that you want your materials to be part of the flow of creativity.

We have more information on liability for posting infringing works and fair use