Internet and the impact on intellectual property
The moment someone creates something new or novel in written or graphic form, the creator has intellectual property rights to what they have created. They retain control over how the material is used, whether or not others can use it, and the right to deny others the option to copy or modify their work. The ethic has emerged that free information for all on the Internet means that everything on the Internet is free. While many websites are free, this does not mean that individuals or companies are free to copy or use material created by others.
When someone posts information on your website, you retain the intellectual property rights to their writing. Blog entries are copyrighted unless the individual declares that they have released it into the public domain. For example, permission may be granted for free distribution as long as attribution to the original source is granted. Permission may also be granted to summarize or except if links to the source website are given.
Works of art and images created by others are also personal intellectual property. This includes logos, personal website trademarks, blog trademarks, and photos posted on websites. Unless the website’s terms grant free use of images posted there, photo and graphic reuse rights are prohibited unless permission is granted by the content creators. For example, it is illegal to take photos of someone’s personal website and use them in advertising campaigns without their permission. It is also illegal to take someone’s image, modify it for fun, and then post it; this is a violation of both your intellectual property rights to your images and potential defamation.
The Internet has made the theft of intellectual property much easier. While website caching is technically an intellectual property infringement, it is rarely penalized. Copying and pasting content from other websites as content on your own site has led to legal action. However, this has led to the widespread use of Internet plagiarism checking websites. However, it cannot find all the locations as these plagiarism checking tools do not allow easy access to paid access websites, private list server, password protected forums, and DRM-blocked digital downloads.
Digital violations of intellectual property rights have also spread to print publications. Imagine a publisher looking for electronic submissions of manuscripts. Then you get dozens, if not hundreds, of requests. Or maybe you download eBooks and save them. With minor editing, perhaps just the signature of his own name, the work is now his at first glance, no matter where he publishes it. Selling the work to magazines or publishing it in print books makes it less obvious and perhaps even hidden from plagiarism checking websites.
However, this is the controversy raging in the David Byron Boyer (aka Doc Byron) plagiarism case. An individual working as a digital media publisher and editor was managing a website. Through sites like Lulu.com, he was able to pay to have printed books published. There was nothing to stop him from simply accepting a lot of submissions, substituting his own name, and then posting the material himself. In the most egregious case, he simply replaced writer Ferrel (Rick) Moore’s signature with his own name and then submitted the story “Electrocuting the Clowns” for his consideration. It was only by chance that the real author was a member of the Horror Writers Association and saw his own story submitted by Mr. Boyer for his consideration for the Bram Stoker Horror Award. By having a printout several years older than the file sent over the Internet, he demonstrated his intellectual ownership and true ownership of the story. This led to the investigation into Mr. Boyer’s 2010 submission of “Crimson Screams” to the HWA. Upon discovering that several of those works had been plagiarized, the HWA had to revoke Stoker’s recommended notices that he had given to these works. Several of the plagiarized authors are considering legal action.
While scope can be hard to pinpoint due to digital rights management blocked copies or print books sent via email archives, an author’s intellectual property rights don’t stop once their creation leaves your computer.