Responsible digital citizens must follow laws regarding use of words, images, videos, and work on the internet. Although it can be tempting to claim another's work as one's own, honest digital citizens ensure rights of use and responsibility online.
What is copyright (and why does it matter to Digital Citizens)?
A copyright is the rights of a creator over the original piece of work they have created. These rights include the right to publish the work, reproduce the work, distribute the work, or to make the work public. Creators can copyright their original writings, art, music, or computer programs. This includes poetry, novels, essays, blogs, movies, songs, art, graphic designs, computer software, architecture, and more.
A copyright is violated any time an individual uses an original creative work in a way not intended by the creator. This includes creating online videos with unlicensed music clips, using a photograph from a blog without permission, copying software code without giving credit, or copying someone else's work without an agreement. Responsible Digital Citizens do not use or steal someone else's creative work.
What is plagiarism (and why does it matter to Digital Citizens)?
Plagiarism is taking someone else's ideas, words, or work without proper credit. Plagiarism includes improperly citing an author's work in your own paper or blog, submitting someone else's work as your own, or copying someone else's original words or ideas without giving them credit. Taking credit for someone else's words or work is considered theft under the law!
To avoid plagiarism, ensure you properly cite another person's work when you are using it. To learn how to properly cite, quote, or paraphrase, Purdue University Online Writing Lab has a wonderful site full of instructions. Grammarly offers a plagiarism checker to help check written work for errors. Responsible Digital Citizens must take the time to properly give credit to the author, artist, or maker's original content.
What is Fair Use (and why does it matter to Digital Citizens)?
Under certain circumstances, copyrighted material may be used without permission from the author. Generally, if someone is discussing a work to teach, offer commentary or criticism, or to discuss in a journalism outlet, fair use principles allow you to reproduce some of the copyrighted work. For example, a teacher could copy a news article and pass out to her class in order to teach on the writing style, or a student could quote lines from a book for a book review. There are four guidelines to Fair Use:
1. The Purpose and Character of Use: Are you using someone else's work for creative critique, criticism, or parody? If there is a "transformative" nature of your work, you are likely covered under Fair Use law.
2. The Nature of the Copyrighted Work: Are you using published factual material that benefits the public? Then you may be covered under Fair Use.
3. The Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Taken: The less you copy, the more likely that your copying will be considered fair. Borrowing a substantial amount of work from another author is considered theft.
4. The Effect of the Use Upon the Potential Market: Will your reproduced portion of the owner's work deprive them of income or undermine their role in the marketplace? If so, you are not covered by Fair Use law.
When using someone else's work, Digital Citizens need to be aware of Fair Use regulations and ensure they are within their rights to reference non-original content.