IEP – Terms of Endearment & Other Blogging Tools

If we want to be taken seriously as bloggers, we must take blogging seriously. Seriously.

We’re responsible for the way we decide to decorate the internet. We’re sprinkling it with confetti – and let’s make it more original confetti than chopped up bits of other people’s posts and pictures. If blogging feels like work, it probably means you’re doing it right.

The reason copyright is so important is because it lets the creator decide the context in which their work may be used. As the creator of your blog, your original content is, by default, yours under copyright. You don’t need a © sign – it is what it is. Copyright is like a birthright – when you make something and bring it to life on paper or in a photo or some other tangible medium, boom, it’s protected.

It’s important you create Terms on your site to reflect how your material may be used elsewhere. You can tell people they’re free to use it any way they want or you can be more selective. FACT: It is entirely OK to create content online and say that you do not want it used outside of your space. The internet doesn’t make things public domain. People must be educated.

The following resources may help you. If you have questions, feel free to contact me!

(Disclaimer: I am not an attorney and anything I say is not to be taken as legal advice just advice from a fellow blogger, writer and artist.)

TOOLS

Create your own site disclosure policy
http://disclosurepolicy.org/

My Free Copyright
http://myfreecopyright.com/

Creative Commons licenses
http://creativecommons.org/

(Find out more about copyright and Creative Commons, here.)

LINKwithlove

www.linkwithlove.org

SnapWidget.com (a great way to share Instagrams by a third party app that doesn’t add a Pin It! button – none of these sites should have them – SnapWidget is kind of enough to respect your IP and IG rules)

www.snapwidget.com

GOOD READS

What to do when your blog content is scraped – great post and firsthand account by @bringupbee
http://bringingupbronwyn.com/copyright/

What to do when your work is used without permission
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/stopping-internet-plagiarism/

Legal Guide for Bloggers: Intellectual Property
https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/IP

Please do not copy or distribute the If Emily Posted resource lists from this site without permission, but please make use of all the information these links provide. These resources will be added to and edited over time. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.