I wrote this blog post about copyrights and blogging in simple English for those who are experienced or just starting to blog. In addition, there are many useful links to use. Copyright is a serious thing and should not be neglected.
Disclaimer: The information is not and shall not be construed as tax, accounting, legal, regulatory, or other professional advice or sufficient to satisfy any tax, accounting, legal, regulatory, or other professional requirements.
Table of contents
Texts and copyrights
To avoid any copyright issues, just don’t copy anything from texts that you didn’t write. If you use even one sentence, it is considered a copyright violation.
I had a client who said: “But I copied just one sentence.” But it is still stealing someone’s intellectual property, even if it is “one innocent sentence.” Please, do not do it. It is simple.
If you are unsure if your text has any plagiarism, it is a good idea to use an online Plagiarism Checker. For example,
These programs highlight which sentences were plagiarised and you will clearly see which ones you have to fix.
Cite sources
Even if you are writing a non-academic blog post, you still have to cite the used sources. It is another important thing that you need to know about about copyrights and blogging.
Often we include some parts of research studies or someone else’s blog post. Firstly, you should paraphrase. Then, state the source. And finally, include it in the list of used sources at the end of your text.
How to cite sources for your blog posts
At the end of your blog post write “used sources” or “list of used sources.” If you have no idea how to cite them, I highly recommend using the Citation Machine. This is a free online tool. You just use the links from the pages you need to cite and the citing machine will do all the work for you. Moreover, you can use this citing machine if you use books, printed articles, magazines, papers, etc.
Obtain Owners’ Permissions
If you want to use copyrighted material from others, for example, handouts or workbooks, you must get permission from the copyright owner. Find their contact information and drop them a line. Remember to tell them who you are, and where you are going to publish their works, and include the link to your blog. Make sure that you wait until they answer and you have their approval in written form (via email or a Messenger).
One educational company stole my picture, i.e., they used it for their commercial purposes and didn’t get my permission. They just downloaded it. When I confronted them, they said that they tried to reach me via LinkedIn. But at that time, I had not been using LinkedIn. They also had links to my Facebook, and Instagram accounts as well as my email address. It was a nasty situation for them. I wrote a copyright claim.
Plagiarism and Chat GPT
As of today, it can be argued that it is not plagiarism to use an answer generated by chat AI technology. Because these answers are not the work of one person, but rather a sophisticated algorithm that is based on an enormous amount of data and sources.
The content generated by the ChatGPT plagiarism does not constitute outright copying of the work of any other person.
Yet, I highly do not recommend you use AI tools for writing your blog posts or any other texts. AI-written texts will do worse for your SEO purposes. And if you use them for academic purposes you might get in trouble with your uni.
What to do if you got a copyright claim
A copyright claim is essentially an assertion made by someone that you have used their work, which could be an audio file (or a piece of it), a photograph, or a video clip.
- Once you have received a copyright claim, read it carefully.
- Contact your lawyer.
- If the copyright claim states that you must delete the plagiarised content, do so! And of course, do your best to satisfy all the questions addressed.
- Please remember to contact the person who sent you the copyright claim.
Images and copyrights
The best option to avoid any copyright claims is to use your own pictures. However, if you do not have your pictures, you may use pictures from stock websites. For example,
If you would like to read more on copyrights and music, videos, I have a blog post about it: “Copyrights and Social Media”
What I do to protect my texts
One of the ways to protect your blog posts from being copied, add a Copyright Notice. It will let others know that your work has copyright protection.
Another way is to use this CSS:
body {
-webkit-user-select: none;
-moz-user-select: none;
-ms-user-select: none;
user-select: none;
}
Conclusion:
Please take copyrights seriously to avoid any copyright issues. Let me know in the comments below if you found my blog post about copyrights and blogging useful.
Disclaimer: The information is not and shall not be construed as tax, accounting, legal, regulatory, or other professional advice or sufficient to satisfy any tax, accounting, legal, regulatory, or other professional requirements.
Used sources:
Disclaimer of professional advice sample clauses. Law Insider. (n.d.). https://www.lawinsider.com/clause/disclaimer-of-professional-advice
Jindal, M. (2024, February 15). Blogging and copyright infringement // Bytescare. https://bytescare.com/blog/copyright-infringement-blogging
Libguides: Library Skills for all students: Plagiarism and chatgpt. Plagiarism and ChatGPT – Library Skills for All Students – LibGuides at University of South Florida Libraries. (n.d.). https://guides.lib.usf.edu/c.php?g=451607&p=9675504
Skrypkina, T. (2023, February 12). Copyrights and Social Media. #teachingisfun. https://teachingisfun.net/copyrights-and-social-media/
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