3 Software-Related Legal Issues You Might Face One Day
Simple software-related mistakes could land you with fines, lawsuits, or even jail time. Are you aware of these potential legal issues?
Happy Birthday Is Finally Public Domain, China's Official Linux Distro...[Tech News Digest]
Also: people are watching fewer season premiers this year, Pebble's got an attractive new watch, and a cat that is absolutely up to no good.
The Ongoing War Against Stolen Tweets, And How You Can Help
People are getting job offers and recognition for their tweets – it's time to get serious about plagiarism on Twitter.
Concerned About Copyright? A Guide For Legally Using Images On The Web
Copyright is a complex subject. A fair amount of understanding makes it easier. If you're wondering under what circumstances you can use someone else's creative work -- expect some answers here.
Copyright on the Internet and Why You Should Care
Copyright is a big deal on the Internet, and it has a huge impact on everyone, whether you create content or just read the stuff produced by sites like MakeUseOf.
Open Source Software Licenses: Which Should You Use?
Did you know that not all open source licenses are the same?
Flowchart: Can You Use That Copyrighted Picture?
Say you find an image online that you'd like to use in your article, or repost. How do you go about deciding if it's even legal?
Confused About Copyright Law? These Online Resources Can Help
It's a confusing subject, yes, but it's important that you wrap your head around it. If you're involved in any sort of creative work, these resources will help you do just that.
Understanding Copyright: 5 Myths Debunked!
There's a lot of misunderstanding around Copyright law, especially when it's online. You could be breaching Copyright and not even know it.
What Should Be Done About Online Piracy? [We Ask You]
People are sharing copyrighted files over the Internet every day and in every part of the world. It's a huge problem for record labels, film studios, TV companies, and the creative people behind the albums, movies, television shows that are being shared. We want to know, What Should Be Done About Online Piracy? Many of the laws being used to tackle the problem of piracy are failing to prevent piracy.
Churnalism: Find Out When Reporters Re-Print Press Releases
Find out when journalists are copying paragraphs from press releases, or using Wikipedia in place of research. Churnalism is a website – and a browser extension – that allows you to find out when reporters were lazy about a particular story. Churnalism compares the news you're reading with a database of press releases.
Is Buying Second-Hand Software Legal?
This is by no means a legal document and don't think that this substitutes for the opinions of an officer of the court. Let me be clear - I'm going to present to you the research that I've done and what it means to me. It is NOT legal advice. Now that is out of the way, lets get to the heart of the matter on whether buying second-hand software legal or illegal.
Tips & Techniques For Preventing Online Plagiarism
Modern technology is making it easier to catch plagiarists, but it’s an irony that technology is also making it easier for plagiarists to evade being caught. The latter phenomenon is for another day as today we focus on the positive and look at the tips and techniques for preventing online plagiarism.
What Is Fair Use? A Basic Explanation For Aspiring Creatives [MakeUseOf Explains]
Half of the videos I find on YouTube always have some note in the description about how it's totally legal for the creator to use songs from their favorite band as background music. Their reasoning tends to always be in the form of two words: fair use. Unfortunately, this is often because of complete ignorance. Other times its just a total disregard for the law.
How To Respond To Content Thieves With a DMCA Takedown Notice
If you have ever had a piece of work stolen and published elsewhere online, you know that it can feel pretty hopeless. Nasty content thieves just don't seem to care how they acquire anything, and their plagiarism occasionally rewards them with sweet advert revenue. Don't despair, though, for there is hope, and it comes in the form of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
What Is DRM & Why Does It Exist If It's So Evil? [MakeUseOf Explains]
Digital Rights Management is the latest evolution of copy protection. It’s the biggest cause of user frustration today, but is it justified? Is DRM a necessary evil in this digital age, or is the model it supports no longer valid? Join me, as I explain all about DRM, why it’s needed, and why it just doesn’t work.
Reader, Beware Of Content Thieves: Why Pirates Steal Website Content
Picture this: you sign into the admin page of your Wordpress blog, and your dashboard shows 15 new incoming links - awesome, you think - until you look through each of the links to find they've actually just stolen and reprinted your content, word for word, and the only reason you found out is because they forgot to strip the link, which have caused it to automatically ping you. What the heck?
Who Owns That MP3? Rights & Ownership In The Digital Era
This is pretty new ground - what happens to your legally purchased MP3 collection when you die? When one of the least trustworthy British newspapers around reported that Bruce Willis was going to sue Apple because he couldn’t bequeth his digital music collection, the Internet at large jumped at the chance to spew their vitriolic Apple hate. The story was completely false of course - but it raised an important question worth considering - who does own that mp3?
Catch Image Thieves With Who Stole My Pictures And Also Put It To Five More Uses [Firefox]
When it comes to textual works, we have seen how easy it is to catch the copycats. But what about pictures and photographs? Is image search that easy? Probably not; but that’s not to say it is impossible because image search technologies have evolved. Making an effort to defeat image plagiarism is this simple Firefox extension called Who Stole My Pictures.
The 5 Best Sources For Exploring The World Of Public Domain Music
In the midst of streaming music services and (unfortunately) pirated music, we tend to forget that there’s a type called public domain music too. Public domain music quite simply is music and musical works which do not have any form of licenses or copyrights attached to them. They can be freely shared and if one sees it that way, they have no legal owner.