The explosion in use of the internet has made it easy to copy vast amounts of information, including news articles and graphics, without ever leaving your office. The ease with which this information is obtainable has led many to believe that they can copy and redistribute information from the internet at will.
Downloading a single copy of an article from a web site onto your personal computer for your own use is probably fair use and is generally permitted by the authors, but the redistribution of this material by copying for your co-workers or for redistribution through your own internet site is a violation of the author's copyright. Generally, if you want to redistribute information or artwork obtained on the internet, you should still obtain permission of the author or the current owner of the copyright, where it has been assigned. This can be quite complicated where the site contains multimedia animation and sound, as permission may be required from a variety of sources and a number of royalties may be payable. One alternative, where you want to make another person's material available through your web site, is to simply add a hot link from your site directing readers to the original article on the author's web site.
In addition to ensuring that you have necessary permissions to publish information on the internet, you should also be aware that anything you place on the internet will become freely available to others. Although posting an article on your web site doesn't detract from your copyright in the work, it does make it extremely easy for others to copy your work and redistribute it. If you intend to sell the work for profit, you will probably not want to post it on web at all. Even if the work is intended for free distribution, you may want to post a notice with the articles stating what restrictions, if any, you are placing on its copying and redistribution. One way to find out if others are copying your work on the internet is to search for a unique phrase in your article using one of the internet search engines. The complete phrase should be contained in quotes.
For more information about copyright on the Internet, contact Bryan Dale