We have recently been discussing copyright issues at the stores A LOT. We have a customer who is coming in to the stores and very quietly copying projects from magazines and books and then not buying the books. Her take on it is that the projects are there to copy. Our position is that the projects are there to copy if you buy the book. It's pretty cheeky of her; she has even asked for pen and paper to do this and seems to carefully look for the newest staff members to ask...she's pretty quiet and since we encourage our customers to sit for long stretches at the work tables and look through our books or work on their projects she can sometimes get through most of an article before we notice. We decided to make up some signs to put about the stores to explain this issue better, especially since she does seem to have a reverence for the written word! In researching this, my hubby/business partner found this site with one of the best explanations of copyright I have ever read, with perfect real-life examples of violations. Check it out: http://www.sylvias-studio.com/copyright.htm
And thanks to Sylvia!
(We are trying to avoid calling the police on this customer, but it's getting pretty close!)
that's beyond bold, if she's copying from the magazines, she's probably copying from your work if you have any in the store as well, very sad.
ReplyDeletethanks for the link to copyright!
ReplyDeleteActually there's one major misstatement in the article as referenced: Sylvia states, "Jane only needs to place the copyright symbol, (c) followed by the date, her name, or the name of her business prominently on the work."
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Berne convention (followed by the US and most countries) all works created privately and originally after April 1, 1989 are considered copyrighted, whether they are marked with the (c) or not. Putting the (c) on it may make it easier to *defend* the copyright as it shows intent, etc; however, it's not required.
That said, I'm not a lawyer, but I did remember this factoid from my media law class. If you Google "10 Copyright myths templeton" you'll find a great article (can't seem to paste a link here...).
:-)
thanks Lintqueen! that is a good point about the (c), I knew that but had forgotten it...and for those of you playing along at home here's the link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
Thanks Cynthia, I"m working on some long overdue cease and desist letters this week so this is good timing. Yay.
ReplyDeleteOff to check out the link...
xo
Little-known fact: if you do put a copyright notice on your work, you need the word Copyright or the official symbol. (c) has no legal value.
ReplyDelete(ex-copyright lawyer here)