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Copyright Infringement Play It Safe: Making Sure You're Not Committing Copyright Infringement Copyright infringement is not an easy thing to explain. While it may seem as simple as not using someone else’s work, it’s not that easy. Thanks to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and many other organizations, we have the ability to use others’ works – as long as we use it under ‘fair use’ laws. So what does fair use have to do with copyright infringement, and how can you utilize it? Fair use laws are the conditions in which you can use a copyrighted work without having to pay someone royalties. This includes when you use a copyrighted work for educational or instructional uses, criticism of the work, commentaries on the work, news reporting about the work, teaching on the work (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship uses, and research. This is talked about fully in Section 107 of the Copyright Code (commonly called Fair Use) and is available for you to read at your local library. Copyright Infringement in day-to-day life Sometimes, if you’re writing a paper for work or school, or if you are creating a Power Point presentation, you need to use someone’s work that is already in copyright. So how do you use it without committing copyright infringement? All you have to do is ask – the worst they can say is no, right? But, if they do say no, there are several items in the public domain which may help you to finish your project without having to commit copyright infringement. What is the public domain, and how does it relate to copyright infringement? Material that is not copyrighted is considered in the public domain – you cannot commit copyright infringement on works in the public domain. These works include things that the copyright has expired on, or is not copyright-able – such as government publications, jokes, titles, and ideas. Some creators (writers, musicians, artists, and more) deliberately put their work in the public domain, without ever obtaining copyright, by providing an affiliation with Creative Commons. Creative Commons allows people who create materials to forfeit some, or all, of their copyright rights and place their work either partially or fully in the public domain. So, how do I ensure I’m not committing copyright infringement? First of all, if you’re going to use someone else’s material, you may want to check the public domain to see if something is suitable for use, instead of trying to use someone else’s copyright. However, if you can’t find something suitable (and you can’t create something yourself), the next best thing (and your only legal course of action) is to find a piece that is in copyright, and contacting the copyright holder. When you contact the copyright holder, make sure you tell them what you want to use their piece for – whether it’s for your blog, podcast, or report – and ask them if you can use it. You may have to pay royalties, or an attribution in your piece, or a combination of both. The creator may also place many limitations on when and how you can use their material. Follow all these instructions they give you, and you’ll be free and clear to use their work as you want. Once you have permission to use a copyrighted work, you need to make sure you stay within the agreed-upon boundaries - if you veer outside their agreed terms, you may open yourself up for a copyright infringement lawsuit – which can be nasty, costly, and time consuming. If you’re in doubt, before contacting the copyright holder, contact a copyright lawyer to ensure you’re following the law – and protect yourself!

Copyright music lyrics To Copyright Music Lyrics is to Protect the Wealth of your Future Whether you copyright music lyrics or the notes to a song you have a certain amount of ownership in the song. This is one of the many instances where the copyright affects more than one person and results in being valid until the last remaining person on the project (of course you must be identified in the copyright in order for this to affect you) have been deceased for at least 70 years. The easiest route for musicians is not just to write the notes but also to copyright music lyrics at the same time. This is much better for everyone involved and there is only one registration fee rather than creating a need to register the music and the lyrics as separate entities. For those who are new to the entire process of registering copyrights, owning copyrights and wondering exactly what happens now that you've registered it can seem like either an extremely complicated or confusing process. Many new artists fail to properly protect themselves and their non copyright music lyrics from those who would take advantage of them. If you are hoping to copyright lyrics that you've written for a song, I strongly recommend copyrighting music lyrics and registering them before introducing the lyrics to the music of the song unless you wrote both the lyrics and the music. Doing all of it together is often more difficult, particularly for those who feel more talented or gifted in one area than another but it really does help keep everything together and straight over the long haul. It's also great practice to write your own music rather than focusing only on the righting of words. After all, you had something in mind when you wrote the lyrics (a tune, a melody, something) and only you can truly give the unfinished artwork the justice it deserves. So many people forget how similar creating music is to creating visual art. Both require dedication, visions, purpose, and passion. They require different skills but very similar emotions and qualities in order to do well. Once you've begun to copyright music lyrics there really is no major difference between moving on to the next task, which is actually writing and copyrighting the music to go with those wonderful lyrics. If you're not a great music writer, then it is probably preferable that you find someone who is to work on this project with you. Perhaps your next copyright music lyrics session will lead to some wonderful collaborations and joint ventures. Many times in music the hardest part of any big break is in finding the right partner with whom to work towards your common goals. Most bans fail because they either never shared a common goal or someone in the band changed the goal without consulting anyone else. The vast majority of marriages break up over very similar claims. Perhaps the cruelest point of all to make is that not everyone who can copyright music lyrics will be completely honest about the source of the lyrics or the period of their lives while leading up to that point. The sad news is that we live in a world that isn't going to easily take someone's word that they created those lyrics, particularly if someone else already has a copyright on those very same lyrics. If you aren't the ones writing the lyrics, or the music for that matter be careful that you don't end up trying to pass of copyright music lyrics or notes that aren't your own creation, this could definitely lead to more harm than good in time. More than anything else is extremely dishonest and unbecoming of a musician.

Web Hosting - When Changing Web Hosts Nearly everyone will want to change to a new web host at some point. It may involve just changing out old hardware for new. It usually means finding an entirely new web hosting company. When faced with that decision there are a number of issues to be considered. Swapping hardware and/or software is a fairly straightforward decision. There are two possible scenarios. Either you maintain your own hardware and software at a facility managed by others, or you are considering upgrading to newer (usually more expensive) systems maintained by others. In either case, it's simply a matter of estimating the cost and the short-term impact versus the long-term benefits. If the system(s) you currently use are short on capacity, sooner or later you'll be sufficiently motivated to make the change. Either the hardware will become unreliable or loaded to the point you'll be forced to migrate, or your needs will expand enough to justify the effort and expense of moving. Similar considerations apply to the scenario in which you rely on the web hosting company for everything, and want to find someone else to rely on. Regrettably, that's a very common situation. Many web hosting companies provide systems and staff that sooner or later fall below an acceptable level. Most people make the decision to change based on emotion. That's not entirely bad. Emotions incent you to take action. But you need to keep a cool head, too, in order to calculate your long-range self-interest. Bearing some minor inconveniences from time to time is usually worth the trade off. When it begins to affect your site to the point you're losing visitors, it's time to make a change. To get a more objective handle on when that point is reached, reach for some numbers. Maintain, or get from the hosting company, a factual report about availability and current usage. If the server is down so much, or so heavily loaded, that it drives your visitors away, it's time to take action. There are other less easily quantifiable but equally important factors, as well. You will at some point need to communicate with one or more persons who help maintain your site. Even if you do all your own server, database and web site maintenance, someone behind the scenes is helping to keep things running smoothly. That's called 'infrastructure'. If the road you drive on has potholes, it's not enough that you can fix your own car. In terms of network bandwidth and availability, server capacity, disk space, security and a whole array of other aspects, the web hosting company has to have competent people who care (and are allowed) to do the job well. When the company's people fall down - because of incompetence, lack of resources or absence of a culture of excellence - or for any other reason - your web site suffers. This issue more than any other is what drives people to seek another web hosting company. Even if you choose well at the outset, things can change. Management changes, staff changes and companies are taken over by other companies. Sometimes, it isn't simply a matter of swapping out an unreliable piece of hardware or software. When it's time to swap out people, you look for the same aspect: doing the job required.