Hello and welcome to the Working Image Podcast. I'm your host, Jarrod Michael Gordon. This is episode seven, unknowing copyright infringement. Let's get started. Let me start by doing the right thing and remind everyone that I am not a lawyer, and if you have any questions about copyrights or trademarks, you should consult a lawyer. With this in mind, I'm going to tell you what I know about copyrights and trademarks and how it affects your company. From my years of experience, you could right now be guilty of copyright infringement and you may not even know it. Here are some examples I see all the time. There is a landscaping crew in my neighborhood that uses its own version of the Harley Davidson logo. Yep. They just took the shield. Replaced the words? Harley Davidson with the name of their company. There's another one that uses the Superman logo. They took out the s and they put in their own initials. There's a mobile video game trailer that goes around the children's parties and has video games set up for the kids. Now, that's a great business, but they have the video game characters printed all over the trailer. These examples are all guilty of copyright or trademark infringement because none of these companies are paying for the rights to use the original artwork or a copy of it. Here are some examples that probably affect your company and you don't even know it. Have you or anyone in your company searched for an image on Google, then downloaded it and used it for something that was client based? You can't do that. You're breaking copyright. Did your designer used properly licensed stock images for your website. Do you even know these examples lead to millions of dollars in lawsuits? Let's sort out some of the myths when it comes to copyright. Number one, if it's on the internet, then it's free for everyone to use. Nope, that's completely wrong. Just because something is on the internet doesn't mean that it's not copywritten or trademarked. You can't just download anything and use it for your own gain. Number two, the 30% rule. I've heard people talk about the 30% rule for a long time, and it basically means if you change 30% of an image, an audio file, any type of media, then you can use it as your own. This is simply not true. Anything you create from an original piece of work is known as a copy, and if that piece is copy written, then it's protected. There is no 30% rule. There never has been a 30% rule. There never will be a 30% rule. You see, you simply can't make money off of someone else's work without licensing it or getting proper permission to use it. If you have ever watched one of those remodeling shows on TV and at the end of the episode there's that big reveal, right, and they're walking through the newly renovated or designed home, and as they walk through, you may have noticed that there are some photos or artwork just blurred out. Well, it's simply because they didn't pay for the copyright to use that artwork or photos in the episode, so they have to blur it out or else they aregonna have to pay the artist. Everything created is automatically owned by the person who creates it unless there's a contract stating differently, such as one from an employer. So for example, if you take a photo, you own copyright of that photo. There are gray areas to this, such as what if you take a photo of a copywritten or trademarked piece of artwork or a logo, but basically all the photos of your kids on your phone that you took is your copyright. No one can use them to make money off of unless you allow it. Now, from what I understand, you can't seek damages, which as lawyers speak for money, unless your copyright is filed with The Library of Congress, the cost varies, but once your copyright is filed, you can seek damages if someone tries to use your work. Trademarks are a whole other animal and usually acquire a trademark lawyer, I would recommend using a trademark lawyer. I really don't think you can go at it alone. So the fees and the process for that are very different. I'll link the library Congress, upload to the show notes, and I'll also put a recommendation for a great trademark lawyer that I've used in the past. These are reasons why it is so important to hire professional designer. A professional designer will know at the very least, the basic requirements for a project when it comes to copyright, such as properly licensing media and not stealing anyone's work off the internet and selling it back to you the client. In fact, basic copyright and trademark guidelines should be outlined in detail within the designer's contract. Any professional designer will insist on a contract which protects both parties, you the client and them the designer. So like I said before, companies have been sued for millions of dollars because they didn't take copyright or trademarks into account. Some of these companies just didn't know they had to. They assumed everything was fine, they didn't have any malicious intent, they just didn't know. So here are some good practices to follow, so maybe you don't fall into this situation. Number one, when you need images for your project or presentation, use a free to use fully open license website like unsplash.com link in the show notes. Unsplash offers beautiful hi res professional images, and I do mean professional that you can use with a complete open license to be used for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you feel like you're not getting the image that you want from Unsplash, you can try using iStock photo or Adobe Stock link in the show notes. You will find all types of media to license for your project, but these, these aren't free sites. It's not expensive, but it's not free either. Number two, for any projects, websites, brochures, social media posts, et cetera that you might have designed by someone else, whether a professional or not, make sure they're giving you a copy of the license for all the media that they're buying, even if it's just one photo. This will be your proof that the media is legal to use for your project. If the designer doesn't know what you're talking about, get a new designer. It's that simple. I show all my clients where I'm getting any media we need for the project and offer to give them the license, God forbid is ever a problem. I have everything from my client to show that we have used the media properly. Number three, make sure your logo is a custom original design and not copied from another source, or God forbid, another company. Number four, be sure to have a contract with anyone who is designing a project for your company that states the copyright transfers from the designer to the client. Usually this will happen upon final payment of the contract. You might be surprised to learn that many businesses do not get a contract with a designer. Now, the designer owns the project they hired them for because you don't have anything written down that states the transfer of the copyright. So can you imagine building a company for five years, 10 years to a nice, successful level, and then a designer sues you for the logo usage? It happens all the time, so protect your company. Well, that's it for episode seven of The Working Image Podcast, unknowing Copyright Infringement. All the necessary links and information are in the show notes. If you have any questions, email the working image@gmail.com. We know your time is valuable. Thank you for using some of that time to listen. Take care, everyone.