Fall 2019 - 102

LEGAL CORNER
GIVING CREDIT
DOES NOT
EQUAL
PERMISSION
Take steps to protect your social
media content
BY ANGIE AVARD TURNER, ESQ.
Contributing Writer
I
n this digital age where marketing your business
relies greatly on social media, which involves
chronic posting, scheduled posts, selfies, content,
photos, memes, gifs, captions, and so much more, is it
any wonder that being confused by " the rules " happens
on a daily basis? Businesses must now navigate the world
of daily posts without " stepping on another company's
toes, " also known as infringement.
In the United States, copyright law goes back as far as
the Constitution. The founding fathers recognized that
creating new things, whatever those things were, was
important to the new country. They understood that
the foundation of progress in business, even then, was
in creating new things. Copyright protection, much like
other forms of intellectual property, are further codified
in federal statutes. These federal laws are what spell out
the specific rights of a copyright owner and their remedy
when someone else infringes.
Within in the federal copyright statute, a copyright
owner has several exclusive rights, meaning that they,
and they alone get to make the decision as to how to
exercise those rights. Here are the six exclusive rights
afforded to a copyright owner:
* The right to reproduce and make copies of an
original work;
* The right to prepare derivative works based on the
original work;
* The right to distribute copies to the public by
sale or another form of transfer, such as rental or
lending;
* The right to publicly perform the work;
* The right to publicly display the work, and
102 FALL 2019
* The right to perform sound recordings publicly
through digital audio transmission.
Understanding the exclusive rights of a copyright owner
allows one to know what one can and cannot do with
regard to using photos online and in social media. The
scenario that is most common is one business will find a
photo that it wants to use on social media or its website.
The business owner copies the photo in one way or
another, and then posts the photo on its website, social
media, or both. When the business posts the copied
picture on their website or social media, the business gives
credit, by listing or tagging the business whose photo was
copied. The question I receive on a weekly, if not daily,
basis is whether this is legal or whether it is copyright
infringement. The short answer is it is not legal. It IS
infringement. Here is why.
The simple reason this is copyright, and possibly
trademark, infringement is because the photo is copied
without permission. Copyright laws are very straight
forward in defining what infringement is. One copies
and uses without permission. It does not matter whether
the infringer makes money or is copying for personal
use only.
The act that the law is attempting to deter is the
copying, so the purpose of the copying infringement, in
most cases is inconsequential. There are few exceptions.
In fact, when one gives credit to the owner of the photo,
one is, actually, tipping off the owner that the photo is
being used without permission. That is the ironies of all
ironies! Now, there are times when the business owner
of the photo does not mind that someone is using their
photos. However, there are times when the business
owner does not want others using their photos. How does
Fall 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fall 2019
