We’ve spoken about copyright before on here on LWI, but a lot of scribblers are still unaware of some of the pitfalls out there, especially when it comes to the Creative Commons (CC) licenses. As I’ve often said, when it comes to copyright infringement for both content and images, it is always better to err on the side of caution. Unless you’re a hundred percent certain that using someone else’s work can’t possibly get you sued, don’t use it. When it comes to this issue, ignorance of the law doesn’t count. You are always at fault even if you don’t know what copyright means, and as such, if you’re sued you’re more than likely going to have to pay up.
While titles of books are not subject to copyright, and you can use them as you please, the content of books and also songs are very much so, unless they are clearly in the public domain. Stay well away from music. Never use song lyrics in your books without specific written permission from the copyright holders, unless you are positive that they are in the public domain – not even a single recognisable sentence. It’s not worth the risk. Legally, using a phrase of ten words or less is considered fair use if you’re happy to take the chance. Plain lists can’t be copyrighted. For instance, a list of varieties of birds. Recipes can’t be copyrighted either. Unless you actually do very obviously copy and paste another writer’s recipes right down to the same words for the method. Another point to consider is that there are many images that get loaded and labelled as CC0 that are in fact not owned by the people who have loaded them. Another biggie is when using images of people. Unless you have a model release please don’t ever use free images of people for your commercial work. Free fonts downloaded onto your computer also have licences, so be sure of any limitations before you use them in your books.
Anything with a CC licence isn’t automatically free to use in any way you choose and for any purpose, so it’s always a good idea to check properly first. You’re generally safe with public domain works, although you should take note of the fact that just because something like the Mona Lisa is in the public domain and if you take a photo of it, you can indeed do anything you want to with it, photos by other photographers are subject to copyright unless they licence their images CC0. So let’s have a look at the CC licences.
Creative Commons Zero (CC0) works are purposely given this licence particularly because their authors/artists want them to be as freely available worldwide for any use by anyone. You can change them, paint moustaches on them, or use them for your commercial and non-commercial work just as you like, with the only potential problems being when they contain images of people or copyrighted places.
CC BY
Attribution
You can distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon this work, even commercially, as long as you credit the artist/author for the original creation. So in this instance all you would have to do for use in or on your book would be to place the credit in the front matter. This would apply even if the work used is only a small element of a bigger work created by yourself.
CC BY-ND
Attribution-NoDerivs
You can redistribute for both commercial and non-commercial work, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to the author/artist/creator. Once again, credit in your front matter, but with the added proviso that it can only be used exactly as it is. No changes at all including the use of only a portion of it.
CC BY-NC-SA
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
You can remix, tweak, and build on it non-commercially with credit to the creator, and the proviso that you licence your new creation under the identical terms. This is not going to do for your book, unless your book is permanently free, and even then I would think that you would be able to find something else suitable with a CC0 licence. For just playing around to publish on your blog, this would be fine—just don’t forget the credit.
CC BY-SA
Attribution-ShareAlike
You can remix, tweak, and build upon once again but also for commercial purposes with credit to the creator and identical licensing terms. This means that your new work using this would also have to bear the CC BY-SA licence online. You would have to REALLY want to use this for your book to go to so much trouble.
CC BY-NC
Attribution-NonCommercial
You can remix, tweak, and build upon non-commercially with credit to the creator, but you don’t have to licence your new work on the same terms.
CC BY-NC-ND
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
You can download and share with others with credit to the creator, but you are not allowed to change them in any way or use them commercially.
So it’s good to remember that when a font, image, or article is labelled Creative Commons, especially on Wikipedia, it’s always important to look at the exact CC license it’s using before using it for your commercial project. There are many great sites, such as Pixabay and Fontsquirrel where you can download freebies to help you on your way to published awesomeness so there is no need to upload straight from Google searches. Still, it’s always best to check before using anyway.
Reblogged this on Jo Robinson.
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Thanks for sharing this.
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Good for you. It means you probably have taken some kind of interest in it.
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Yeah. Be well.
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Thank you very much for liking the comment I put there. Nice to hear people appreciate the mentions.
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My pleasure.
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I am very pleased that it was received well that I mentioned something on your page. I might read your content sometime.
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Thanks
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I am pleased that my communication to you was welcomed. It is great it went to a good place that was intended as I am building readers to this page.
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They will come. Best of luck.
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Thanks a lot for giving me luck on getting people to read my blog and it is really great to get as much feedback as I can on the things I include on it. You are the most recent person to have responded amongst others.
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I am giving you a mention to express my pleasure that you have wished me luck for my content. I appreciate that you want to praise me for anticipating patiently for the readers who would message me to give me a mention.
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It is appreciated greatly that the comment was given a friendly reception. I really like positive feedback when I can get it following on from commenting about something I read. Good to hear it.
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Thanks so much for letting me know that you have taken pleasure in the comments I posted regarding your blog. I appreciate that you welcome my praise for your content and it is greatly pleasurable also that you have expressed an interest in what I have to say.
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I am doing really good. Thank you for the complement. I am pleased that my comments were welcomed.
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
More great information from Author Jo Robinson
BTW – click on her photo in the right column of my blog to learn more about the Indie Services Jo offers
👍😃
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This sounds interesting. I like reading and researching things like that. It is really serious. I am glad I came across it in social media.
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😃
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Thank you for giving me a shout about my blog. I appreciate you read it. I am aiming to find your comment if there was one given.
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Pleased that something was mentioned about my blog posts and someone has responded to my articles printed here. First time I’ve received a response from anyone I’m following.
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I have been given the notification that you have been finding your way to my blog posts. Thank you very much for stopping by this page and reading what I have put in my content. It is a pleasure and valuable to me to get some feedback on my posts.
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Great reminders, Jo. Thanks. 👍
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Reblogged this on Mysticalwriter and commented:
A closer look at Creative License
original at
https://litworldinterviews.com/2016/03/31/a-closer-look-at-creative-commons-licensing/
Reblogged
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I had no idea there were others and more than CC or CC0. Wow. Thanks for this post, Jo. 🙂
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This is so helpful, I’m reblogging, if that’s okay.
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Reblogged this on The Writers' Workshop Blog and commented:
Unsure about copyright? Here’s a very helpful post on Creative Commons from Lit World Interviews.
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Reblogged this on Musings on Life & Experience and commented:
Important information.
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Reblogged this on Lyn Horner's Corner.
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Thanks for this very helpful information! I reblogged.
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Really useful post. I didn’t know exactly what all those letters meant. Great to know, thank you for putting it into ‘plain speak’ for us, it has certainly helped me. We really do have to take this seriously.
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I’ve been doing a lot of research lately on ‘illegal images’. As you mentioned, CCO is free to use for anyone, and you also mentioned that anybody could load a CCO picture and say it is. How would we know if it wasn’t really CCO? I’m dealing with this issue right now?
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