About Copyright
Copyright is in place to protect the intellectual property of those holding the copyright from inappropriate use of their property, to ensure that proper accreditation is included and, in some cases, to ensure that the copyright holder receives remuneration for the use of the copyrighted property.
What Can I Include
You can include any content which is your own. That means anything you have written yourself (that has not been plagiarized from someone else’s written work), recollections from memory and photographs that you have taken. You can talk about your experiences and about people you know.
You can include excerpts from books or memoirs that are under copyright only if you have written permission from the copyright holder and that permission information must be included in your submission.
Photographs often present the biggest copyright challenge. Photographs found on the Internet are ALL copyrighted, either by the person who took the photographs or by the web site on which you found it. Unless you have personally taken the photograph, you can assume that it is copyrighted by someone else. Just as with excerpts of written works above, you must have written permission to use any copyrighted photograph you submit. A photograph take by a family member can be used if permission is granted by them.
Copyright on Your Written Submission
Generally, you own the copyright on your blog posts. You must remember however that your blog post is subject to editing by an appointed web site blog moderator. You must also be careful about including information received in comments left by others regarding your blog post. Incorporating this information in your blog post may invalidate your copyright on the blog post since it includes information provided by others. Because comments left by a web site visitor are considered to be public domain, you can incorporate them into your blog posts.
Copyright on Your Images
When it comes to images, everything changes. An image’s ownership can be easily attributed. If you took a photograph and you include it to a blog post, you can claim copyright ownership in the image’s description. Just include a statement such as “This image © your name. All rights reserved.“
Proper Accreditation of Copyrighted Material
Any copyrighted material that you have permission to use in a blog post must be properly accredited. This can be easily done by providing a statement of ownership and permission to use.
Here is an example that you might use in the description section of a copyrighted photograph: “Photograph © 2010 by A. Person and used by permission.“
Here is an example that you might use when using an excerpt from a written work: “From Canadians in Korea by A. Person; © 2010 Northcott Publishers. All rights reserved. Used by permission.“
Challenged Material Will Be Removed
If a copyright holder becomes aware that their copyrighted material has been used in a blog post, two things can happen.
First, if the copyright holder requests the material be removed, it will immediately be removed without question.
Second, the copyright holder may allow the material to remain and simply request that proper accreditation be provided. In this case we will make the necessary changes to the content.