Securing your intellectual property

I’ve recently seen posts by Rick Strahl and Dave Shea as they discovered that people were stealing their articles for publishing on another blog. Unfortunately this seems to happen on regular basis.

Since the web is all about openness, the issue could be more complicated that I make it sound. I’ve heard arguments such as “if you don’t want it copied, don’t put it on the web at all” or “think of it as flattery”.

Yes, most material on the web can be copied and modified by anyone with relative ease. But does the possibility justify the action? The usual copyright rules normally apply to creative content regardless of medium. Often it’s alright to quote or even borrow some parts, the important thing is to ask for permission.

Padlocks on a bridge in Riga.

On occasion I’ve been asked by other people if they could use my material. For instance, one of my photographs was used in a travel guide for Rome. The author asked very politely for permission and got it.

But I guess most people never even consider asking for permission. There are even sites such as Facebook which clearly states that we lose copyright over all material that we upload to the site. So much for intellectual property on proprietary sites.

If you ever wonder whether anyone has copied your material, there is a tool available at Copyscape for scanning the web. Similar tools are available for images.