There is often confusion around copyright protection and licensing, and we often have to take down content that is violating a license or using copyrighted material in a way that the original creator or license does not allow. To help clarify what is and what is not acceptable usage, here are some specific definitions of copyright and license and then an explanation of how that could apply to content posted or linked to from the Hub.
Copyright
Copyright
- Automatically applies the instant the content is created by the creator
- Does not require registration (but helps document the origin date and time and could help in an actual legal proceeding)
- Protects the creator from direct copy or derivative use of their content without their consent
- Grants the user specific rights on how they can use copyrighted material
- Protects both the user and the creator. If the user has a license that granted them permission for specific use, the creator cannot later contest the use of that content if the user followed the license terms
- Only valid if the content was delivered with the license (in same zip file, var meta data, etc.)
- If no license is present, copyright protections still apply if the creator can prove source origin
- Creators who use other creator's licensed content in a manner that does not meet the license standards are subject to having their content removed
- Creators who use other creator's licensed content in a manner the does meet the license standards are protected from removal even if the original creator files a report, since the license granted them specific permissions on use of that content and those permissions cannot be revoked
- Creators who use other creator's content that comes with no license, or uses content of unknown origins are at risk of having their content removed if the original creator comes forward and claims copyright protection and can prove the content being copied, modified and/or redistributed is theirs.
