Last updated on April 13th, 2023 at 07:39 pm

So you’ve decided to expand your marketing efforts on the internet. Whether sharing content created by others or generating the content of your own, investing time in content marketing can significantly boost your online presence and potentially convert readers to consumers.

Before buying a domain, creating a blog, and sharing content all over social media, you should first learn the concepts behind intellectual property. Knowing these concepts will protect yourself and your company from infringing your intellectual property rights and prevent you from committing any infringement yourself.

But first, what is intellectual property?

Intellectual property refers to anything created by the mind, such as inventions, art, design, logos, and literary work, including this article you are reading. The aim of protecting intellectual property is to incentivize authors and creators to continue innovating for the benefit of society in exchange for the social value of their creation.

There are different types of intellectual property rights, but copyright is the most relevant for the content marketer.

According to United States Law, copyright grants a creator of an original work the exclusive right for its use and distribution. Copyright protection extends toward “works of authorship,” which include literary work (short stories, poetry, news articles, magazine features, etc.) and audiovisual work (images, poster designs, advertisements, etc.).

The original author of the work, that’s you, owns the copyright to that work unless you explicitly assign those rights to a third party. Work is deemed “created” and automatically acquires the protection of the law when it is fixed in a tangible form and can be perceived, reproduced, or communicated directly or with the aid of a machine or device.

What are the rights of a copyright owner?

US Copyright Law grants five rights to a copyright owner:

1. First is the right to reproduce the copyrighted work. Which is the right to copy, replicate, or transcribe a copy in a fixed form;
2. Next is the right to prepare derivative works based upon the work. Which is the right to innovate and modify the work or create a new work based upon this existing work;
3. Also, the right to distribute copies of the work to the public, either by sale, rental, lease, or lending;
4. The right to perform the copyrighted work publicly. Which gives the copyright owner control over how the work is performed in public;
5. And the right to display the copyrighted work publicly, similar to the previous point.

(sections 107 through 122 of US Copyright Law)

With you being the copyright owner of your content, you can assign each right separately to a third party. Your copyright infringement will occur if another party violates these rights without your explicit consent.

Disney has lobbied to protect their copyrights from entering the public domain.

You should note that the law distinguishes the original idea itself from the expression of that idea. Copyright protection provides explicitly for work that is in material, tangible form. For instance, if you had the original idea of creating an article about copyright law for content marketers, I was the first to write about that idea. The article I wrote would be copyrighted, but not the idea itself. You cannot claim copyright infringement, but you are free to create your article exploring the same topic.

Another consequence of this idea-expression dichotomy is the distinction of expression of the same idea that is substantially similar. If we both created similar content articles with substantially similar “expressions” of the concept, the law might make us liable for copyright infringement.

Marvin Gaye and Robin Thicke

This concept can be challenging to put into practice from a legal perspective. It can be hard to distinguish between the “idea” and the “expression.” Most of these cases are prevalent in the literary and music industry. In a recent case, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, singers of the 2013 hit song Blurred Lines, lost to Marvin Gaye’s estate. The court ruled that “Blurred Lines” copied Marvin Gaye’s expression “Got To Give It Up” despite the two songs having different chords and lyrics.

What are the exceptions to copyright infringement?

With this case setting a precedent, you might worry that creating content on the internet might be considered intentional copyright infringement. There are three exceptions to the copyright infringement rules—when the material is not copyrightable, when the material is in the public domain, and when the usage is considered “fair use.”

Materials that cannot be copyrighted include facts, those created by the United States Government, and works that are not fixed in a tangible form of expression.

The public domain refers to created work no longer covered by copyright law. The duration of the protection of the law is the creator’s life plus 70 years. After this, the public can use the material without license fees paid to the author or their heirs.

Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” is in the Public Domain

Finally, “fair use” is copyright material for a limited purpose, usually to comment, criticize, or parody. For instance, if you are writing a book review or response to an article, the principle of fair use allows you to reproduce some of the work without getting explicit permission from the owner. However, this principle is still subject to debate and is on a case-to-case basis.

As you create an SEO content strategy, you should have two concerns. First, you should avoid having your work infringed on by others. Second, you should prevent infringing upon another person’s copyright.

The first thing you need to do is to state on your site the rights you reserve to yourself and the rights you give to others. In this way, your readers can know how much they could use in their work, which can benefit both of you. If you don’t know how to do it, you can use the format created by Creative Commons, which lets you choose how others can use your creation.

Creative Commons Licences

There are plenty of ways to use the content of others without committing copyright infringement. You can use works and images in the public domain in your articles without attribution.

For photos and content not in the public domain, you should check the rights the owner gives to the third party. You can usually find this on websites on a separate page called Content Policy. Image-sharing sites like Flickr usually include the licensing they allow on the image page. When in doubt, contacting the copyright owner before using any of their work is best.

Technology is continually changing the way we live. While it provided an easier way to express our ideas, it also created complications in how copyright works.

It may be easy to copy and paste text and images in a blog article, but the law still applies at the end of the day. Before you start creating your content, be sure to consider these concepts to prevent liabilities in the future.

Check out our copyright, trademarks, and patents article to learn more.