You’ve likely written a documented essay at some point for a class. You wrote a piece that contains many of your own ideas, while integrating material from other sources. The other sources are then listed on a works cited page. This gives proper credit to the original authors. If you include word-for-word information from another source without giving the proper credit, it is called plagiarism, a term one of your teachers has very likely mentioned before.
This applies to written works that you place online, as well. But if plagiarism were the only concern, a person could post any written work they wanted, so long as they credit the original author. So what happens if you post a poem that’s in a book you own?
This is where copyright infringement becomes an issue. If you post a written work that’s currently only obtainable by purchase, you are affecting that author’s marketability and income. But maybe that same author has made a poem they’ve written freely available on their own website? Can you use that?
While the poem on their site is free, it is still attracting an audience. If you post that work on your own website, it is stealing away potential visitors the author may have gotten. And those visitors may then read up more on the author, buy one of the author’s other works, or tell their friends about the author’s website.
However, this doesn’t mean that every story, poem and report in existence is off-limits. First, as we said, if your writing is well-documented and you are giving proper credit, you can cite material from other sources. Just don’t go overboard—cited material is only used to support your writing.
Also, some writings fall into the public domain. Any works in the public domain have had their copyrights expire or the creator expressly gave permission for the work to be usable by the public. Many old pieces of literature, silent films and musical compositions fall into the public domain. These works can be sought out with a web search—many websites archive such material. Just be cautious—what is and isn’t in the public domain can vary from country to country. So all because something is in public domain in the United States, for example, doesn’t mean it is in Great Britain or Japan.
But is there anything you can do if material you’d like to use isn’t in the public domain? Simply ask the author permission to use it. Your request may be denied, but it’s a safer and easier course of action than possibly committing copyright infringement.
