Copyright laws in Canada

There are some bloggers finding that they are prone to theft of their intellectual property. This include images and written content of all kinds. Sam, in Singapore, created a succinct post on this. He also told me to visit: Copyscape, to determine if your site has been plagiarized.

I think that most media would find it is a crime. When they pay a journalist to write a piece, how can a blogger just reproduce it? Which is what they are doing. I contacted a media outlet, and they did not seem too concerned since the blogger had posted the original URL location. But I think it a slippery slope. Fairness aside, when we can read the entire news article elsewhere, why not post a reflection on the article, with a link? You are not adding to the body of knowledge by recreating a news item word-for-word.

In my mind, many are happy to have you quote a few sentences, but some people copy the entire post. Some put a link to the original post. but I don't think that is good enough.  In my mind, we amateurs are not so much reporting news, as presenting a take or a rant on an issue. Even news 'reporters', the professionals, are embedding their work with bias and a left or right point of view.

Copyright Act - R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42 (Section 29.2)

29.2 Fair dealing for the purpose of news reporting does not infringe copyright if the following are mentioned:

(a) the source; and

(b) if given in the source, the name of the

(i) author, in the case of a work,

Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42)

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Act current to 2011-11-14 and last amended on 2005-12-12. Previous Versions

If you put on your site that it is copywritten, then it is an infringement. I think the media must clamp down on this. You have to teach others how to respect your rights and stand up for yourself.

Lorelle explains what to do when you find your work has been stolen: talk to them, print out violations, request they do something. I would say demand it! I have blogged about plagiarism, an issue in universities, as well as high schools. I often had to teach students the difference between copying paragraphs and rewriting in your own words. Unfortunately, some parents did not see the problem! However, with incidences of Economic Espionage, we must be vigilant and set high standards across the board.

TIP:
One important thing for those with photos is to avoid putting such high resolution photos on that may be used by someone else. I keep mine, or try to, lower than 640 pixels.

Click on the icon to read about other points of view.