Intellectual Property?

[clarabelle]

Does anyone know how to find out about written forms of intellectual property?
I am in charge of a website and I am confused as to what I can put on it.
I know that most things cannot be reprinted (say a magazine article) without permission. Is there usually a fee as well?
I am confused about what can be reprinted or linked to.
Thanks!

 

[ducklite]

You can pretty much link to anything you want, although it's nice to ask for permission.

You can't use images belonging to someone else pretty much without their permission. Like the image in my signature line, I got the permission from the owner before using it. Depending on what you want to do with it, permission may or may not be granted.

As far as articles, it really varies from publication to publication. The best thing to do is to ask. And yes, some do charge a fee, and some also limit the amount of time you are allowed to offer the material, even if you paid for a license.

Let me know if you have any specific questions. I was the web site coordinator for a Fortune 100 in my last job, so although I'm not an attorney, I do have a level of expertise in this matter. If this is a corproate site you need to speak to your company attorney about SOX compliance as well.

Anne

 

[bicker]

The practice you're referring to is called Deep Linking, and it involves any case where you provide a hyperlink to any page or image on a remote web site other than that site's home page. While many web site owners have no problem with this, many commercial web site owners, especially, do object to the practice, and there have been several lawsuits against web site owners who practice Deep Linking, though all, to date, have been settled out of court. In probably the most famous case, Microsoft agreed to remove its Deep Links and pay an undisclosed sum to Ticketmaster.

 

[clarabelle]

Thanks!