{"id":17318,"date":"2023-01-19T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.copyrightlaws.com\/?p=17318"},"modified":"2026-07-04T12:22:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T12:22:40","slug":"10-essential-copyright-compliance-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/copyrightlaws.com\/?p=17318","title":{"rendered":"10 Essential Copyright Compliance Tips Every Information Professional Must Know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Copyright compliance is a key task of information professionals and librarians. Copyrightlaws.com&#8217;s CEO Lesley Ellen Harris shares a presentation with 10 essential copyright compliance tips every information professional must know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This guide is just the tip of the iceberg. You&#8217;ll see a summary of the tips below. Then take a look at the slides for greater explanation of how these simple points can keep your copyright infringement risks to a minimum. And look below for Lesley&#8217;s bonus tip!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-summary-10-essential-copyright-compliance-tips\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Summary: 10 Essential Copyright Compliance Tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It&#8217;s all about risk management<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>U.S. copyright law doesn&#8217;t protect ideas<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Copyright protection is automatic<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is voluntary<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There is no orphan works provision in the U.S.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>U.S. government works aren&#8217;t protected by copyright<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Public domain = no copyright protection<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Licenses expire<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fair use may apply to corporate libraries<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Images found through Google Images may be protected by copyright<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-slideshow-10-essential-copyright-compliance-tips\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Slideshow: 10 Essential Copyright Compliance Tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can see the actual slides with an explanation of each of these tips here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/presentation\/d\/e\/2PACX-1vS53rLG6-YVGVkPYlXV1fRgJCR2z92JfpkR9AkBQF8bqzIP7SFClKsCAFpiIG9GhA\/embed?start=false&amp;loop=false&amp;delayms=5000\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"960\" height=\"749\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" mozallowfullscreen=\"true\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-what-does-copyright-risk-management-mean\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Does Copyright Risk Management Mean?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Risk management can mean different things. In terms of copyright risk management, it means keeping your risks of using unauthorized third-party content to a minimum. To do this, you&#8217;ll need to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Understand copyright principles and when a specific provision in the copyright act applies to your library or organization<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Be knowledgable of your workplace&#8217;s risk tolerance policies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Practice analyzing copyright risks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Always keep in mind that if you&#8217;re concerned about copyright risks, you can:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Use an alternative work<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Create your own work<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use a work in the public domain<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Link to a work rather than reproduce it<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-what-does-it-mean-to-license-content\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Does It Mean to License Content?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Make sure your community understands that licenses are licenses. That means you don&#8217;t own the content but are allowed to use it under specified circumstances, as agreed to in the terms and conditions of each specific license. This includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Licenses with vendors and database publishers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Creative Commons (opens in a new tab)\">Creative Commons<\/a> licenses<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Stock photo image licenses<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-bonus-copyright-compliance-tip\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bonus Copyright Compliance Tip<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A simple tip: <strong>Be Proactive! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Don&#8217;t wait until a copyright owner says you&#8217;ve infringed their work or used their copyright-protected article, image or video without their permission. This means:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Understand copyright and how it applies in your workplace.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Understand licenses and be familiar with the terms and conditions of licenses for works you&#8217;re using.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Be familiar with your organization&#8217;s tolerance for any risks, especially copyright risks.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Have a written copyright policy or guidelines in place so there&#8217;s a clear copyright message and statement in your workplace. This is a document you can refer colleagues to when they question you about copyright and licensing issues.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make others around you aware of copyright issues and how licenses work, especially in relation to the types of content and ways you use it in your workplace.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/copyrightlaws.com\/copyrightlaws-coms-copyright-leadership-certificate\/\">Copyright Leadership Certificate<\/a>&nbsp;is a hands-on program that will help guide you in legally using third-party content and keeping copyright compliant. The next cohort begins 17 April 2023. <a href=\"https:\/\/copyrightlaws.com\/copyright-leadership-certificate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Register here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Copyright compliance is a key task of information professionals and librarians. Copyrightlaws.com&#8217;s CEO Lesley Ellen Harris shares a presentation with 10 essential copyright compliance tips every information professional must know. This guide is just the tip of the iceberg. You&#8217;ll see a summary of the tips below. Then take a look at the slides for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[34,99,84],"class_list":["post-17318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-libraries","tag-copyright-compliance","tag-copyright-risk-management","tag-lower-copyright-risks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/copyrightlaws.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/copyrightlaws.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/copyrightlaws.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copyrightlaws.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copyrightlaws.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/copyrightlaws.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21419,"href":"https:\/\/copyrightlaws.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17318\/revisions\/21419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copyrightlaws.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/copyrightlaws.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copyrightlaws.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copyrightlaws.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}