Blog Training and How-To Guide for Business Blogging

Continuing our series on copyright, this installment is courtesy of Kimberlee Morrison, Know More Media Editor and author of VinylNotes.

As authors, all we have to protect us from having our work stolen by someone else is our copyright. Theoretically as soon as you create something it is copyrighted by default as soon as you create it. The only time you would possibly need to have a registered copyright is if you need to defend your copyright it court. The good thing about writing online is that you always have proof of when your content was created, and that works in your favor whether your copyright is registered or not.

You want to make sure you avoid even the appearance of plagiarism. Just as you would want anyone quoting you or using your work as a reference to give you proper attribution, you should give others the same courtesy. Easton outlined five basic points about copyright, but I wanted to delve into it a little farther. There are several rules you want to follow when quoting a source.

Attribution, attribution, attribution. Whether you quote a couple words, a couple lines or a paragraph, make sure you cite your source and provide a link. Unlike traditional journalism, the rules of attribution in blogging are pretty loose. However, as long as you provide some identification of your source, you should be in the clear.

Paraphrasing without attribution is plagiarism. Even if you rearrange the words of someone else, you need to credit your source. This is the easiest, most benign form of copyright infringement. However, it is very easy to provide attribution by saying something simple such as “according to” or “in a report by.” Adding these phrases to your sentence when using an external source can save you a lot of heartache.

Copying too much text is not considered fair use. A couple words here, a sentence there, even a few lines from a paragraph are considered fair use. Quoting entire paragraphs and posts is not. Not only does this go beyond the purview of fair use, depending too heavily on words of others detracts from you own authority. Your best bet is to quote a few lines and then provide a link to the rest of the text.

Separate larger quotes. For shorter paragraphs, it is easy and advisable to include them in line with the main text. For larger quotes, it is best to set them apart by indenting. If you wish to further set the quoted text apart, you can also change the color or italicize it.

So there you have a few basic rules to follow when quoting someone in order to insure you don’t infringe on their copyright. These guidelines are standard essay writing and journalistic practice and easily applicable to most any publication as well as blogs.