Intellectual Property Law and the Internet

Copying content without permission of the right holder is illegal, even if rarely enforced. Determine the copyright owner and then ask permission to use the content elsewhere. Short excerpts and quotes, if attributed, do not require additional actions. Unless content is marked as public domain, such as books over eighty years old, research the copyright's age. Determine if the book or article is public domain or if someone still holds the intellectual property rights.

Graphics are easily copied from one website and inserted into another. Yet this doesn't change the artist's right to be paid for its usage or the right to control how their artwork is used. Graphics and images can be open source or available for free to the public.  To protect intellectual property and the ability to patent an idea requires silence until a patent is approved. Discussion of an idea on discussion forums or in chat rooms jeopardizes the right to file a patent. However, discussions on password protected collaborative websites counts as protection of ideas and concepts in work.

The copyright symbol can be put on an article, a blog and on an entire website using the correct ASCII code. However, intellectual property rights on the internet do not require a copyright symbol on every webpage or article for the content creator to retain their rights.

The person who takes a picture owns the rights to that picture and its usage unless they were paid by someone else to take the picture. For example, a wedding photographer may have no rights to the pictures they take because they were paid by the bride and groom. Parents own the rights to the pictures they take of their children. Using someone else's pictures and modifying them, even if intended for innocent humor, is a violation of their rights. It is a violation of the picture owner's property rights to take the image and use it for commercial purposes. This extends to copying a picture off a generic website and using it in online ads or customer reviews.

Using someone's picture to create a social networking profile that is not actually theirs can be prosecuted as identity theft. Creating a social networking profile for a business and pretending to be them is fraud.

Finally, private businesses have the first right to use their business name as a web domain. However, similarly named businesses have a first come, first serve right to domain names based on their business name, even if the business name is trademarked.