Regardless of whether the intellectual property is protected by intellectual property law or otherwise, it is a prudent approach to get permission from the author of the work to make use of the material. This would avoid most of the trouble.
Inherent Risk – Without Appropriate Permission
However, if you are the kind of person contemplating on what if, you need to know that before using anyone’s intellectual work, first of all it helps to know if the intellectual property is protected by intellectual property law.When used without permission, this can constitute to be a violation of law, and there is an inherent risk involved when it is used without getting appropriate permissions.
Exclusive Rights and Non-Exclusive Rights
After understanding the importance of getting the permission, you need to then work towards identifying the owner. Before that, you need to decide upon the kind of rights you are seeking from the copyright permission. You need to state, if you are looking for exclusive rights or non-exclusive rights and you need to discuss with the owner about what are the uses you intend to use the rights for.
The terms of use in a copyright permission will have clauses about the territory within which the permission will be applicable. If you are seeking to use it nationally or internationally, you need to discuss the terms accordingly with the author.
Payments
Some authors might require you to provide them with a payment, some might require a loyalty or percentage from sales and some might simply allow you to use while just enjoying author credits. In cases where a payment is involved you need to discuss the modes of payment about whether you will be paying for once or you will be making the payment in split installments.
Minimize the Risk of Getting Sued
When you get due copyright permission you right away minimize the risk of getting sued. When you do not take the consequences seriously and you continue to use the work, you might not know that, when you get spotted for the issue, and you are violating the use of the work beyond “fair use”then you might be targeted for litigation and in some cases can land you up in penalties that can run through thousands and millions, depending upon how serious the financial and personal consequences are to the author.
The simple approach would be to read the copy policies. Some publishers provide easy to follow copy policies with do’s and don’ts clearly defined. Simply read through them and if all they need is a link back, the work is simple and it can save you tons of trouble. Do the needful, for crediting the author is ethically good. pacerun:yes’> It should be noted that ideas and concepts are not protected by copyright, rather specific methods of expression are protected by copyrights.
For those who are willing to create a quick proof of ownership for creative works, can seek help by making use of facilities like registering with third party websites to create proof of ownership with due timestamps. One of such reliable facilities is www.copyrightwebstamp.com
