Category: Outsourcing

3 Common Copyright & IP Lawsuits Just Waiting to Happen to You & Your Business

Photo Credit: Large copyright sign made of jigsaw puzzle pieces by Horia Varlan used under CC BY 2.0.
Photo Credit: Large copyright sign made of jigsaw puzzle pieces by Horia Varlan used under CC BY 2.0.

The three most common Intellectual Property (IP) themed lawsuits are likely those that center on independent contractor/employee issues, copyright ownership issues and the hijacking of a unique and moneymaking idea.

The issues that create these types of lawsuits tend to crop up again and again for the simple reason that the law protecting the rights of the players is not always intuitive for most people with the result that costly and inadvertent mistakes can easily be made.

The first important legal mine field to know more about is the one that pits the rights of a creative or freelancer against those of an employer.

Part I. Independent Contractor IP Rights v. Employee

Just for a moment pretend that you created this really innovative business and you hired your neighbor’s kid do the programming work for your website.

Now that your business has really taken off you are wondering if the kid actually Continue reading 3 Common Copyright & IP Lawsuits Just Waiting to Happen to You & Your Business

Copyright 101 for eBook Self-Publishing: What You Need to Know about Copyright & Intellectual Property Before You Self Publish

Photo Credit: To lay this book in my lap by Marina Noordegraaf used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Photo Credit: To lay this book in my lap by Marina Noordegraaf used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

A Bundle of Rights: Traditional Publishing vs Self Publishing

The Copyright Act of 1976 grants to the author of a copyrightable work a “bundle of rights.”

This “bundle of rights” as provided by federal copyright law invests the creator of a work with exclusive rights to control the reproduction, adaptation, publication, performance and display of his work.

Historically authors would transfer their “bundle of rights” to a publisher under some sort of contract in order to allow that publisher to “publish” or to reproduce and distribute the copyrighted material.

Today authors are able to retain their bundle of rights and full control of the publication of their work by opting to “self publish.” Self publication allows the author to regulate all aspects of the reproduction, marketing and distribution of his creative work.

How to Navigate the Copyright Minefield

It is important that a self publishing author fully understand Continue reading Copyright 101 for eBook Self-Publishing: What You Need to Know about Copyright & Intellectual Property Before You Self Publish

The Media File that Could: Why Obtaining Full Copyright and Intellectual Property Ownership Matters

Your mother may have told you that sharing is caring, but sharing isn’t always caring when it comes to copyright and intellectual property law.

With the growing popularity of social media platforms, people are sharing images more than ever.

Unfortunately for the creators of the shared media files, few people understand that they are violating copyright law when they upload and post creative work without the authorization of the creator.

Sharing Isn’t Always Caring

One needs only log into Pinterest to find numerous copyrighted images that others have “pinned” or uploaded to the Pinterest website without permission from the image’s owner.

Innocent though it may seem, every time an image is shared without the creator’s permission, a blogger, artist, photographer or graphic designer loses credit for her work and possible income that she could have generated from that work.

This proliferation of copyright infringement can understandably leave a creative feeling a bit down and discouraged.

After experiencing infringement of her work, a freelancer may even wonder whether she can continue to make a profit when her time and hard work easily become mute at the hands of copyright infringers.

After all, a creative can easily put in hours, if not weeks, of thought, work, and editing into a single creative work.

That photo, logo, or written content represents the freelancer’s professional image, work ethic, and indeed, livelihood. Nobody knows better than a freelancer that the widespread violation of an artist’s work equates to theft.

Creating the Media File that Could: How to Protect Your Work

Creatives may feel like they are constantly fighting an uphill battle against technology and social media. But Continue reading The Media File that Could: Why Obtaining Full Copyright and Intellectual Property Ownership Matters

3 Ways to Protect Copyright to Your Brand and Work as a Creative or Freelancer

Part of being a professional creative is protecting your brand – for most of us, this means slapping a copyright notice on the bottom our manuscript pages or stamping a watermark over images we post online.

After all, copyright is implicit in your work from the moment you’ve put pen to paper or raised the viewfinder to your eye.

But putting a copyright symbol on your work doesn’t do a great deal in terms of providing actual protection for your work or your brand – it’s a bit like pushing the lock button on an older car without an alarm system, it’ll keep the honest thieves out but anyone who really wants to steal the car that day is going to pop the lock and drive away with it.

So what can you do about it?

Start by Marking Your Turf

Adding a copyright notice, embedding a watermark and including author information in a digital file are all adequate means of establishing the fact that YOU created something and YOU intend on keeping control over it.

None of these are going to stop a determined copyright violator, especially in a world where the internet encourages the sharing and free exchange of ideas.

But there is a difference between “sharing” and “stealing” – so your job as a creative professional has to include embedding your brand on your work to the highest possible degree. Continue reading 3 Ways to Protect Copyright to Your Brand and Work as a Creative or Freelancer

What is Kunvay?

Nine months ago, we set out on a mission to find a better way to transfer and own creative work.

That journey led us to create Kunvay, the Paypal of copyright and intellectual property ownership (IP) transfer.

With our launch today at the International Startup Festival in Montreal, we make it easy to transact the sale of knowledge work and transfer copyright and intellectual property (IP) ownership online.

Kunvay is where creativity changes hands in an end-to-end transfer process as easy as a click.

As you know, the sale of knowledge work is considerably more difficult to transact than the sale of physical goods due to the legal complexities surrounding the transfer of IP.

Today, many buyers acquire knowledge work without receiving full ownership rights, unknowingly exposing themselves to significant legal and financial risks.

On the flip side, contracting to provide IP transfer can be onerous, often discouraging creators of knowledge work and freelancers from bidding on small projects. Freelancers loose the work, and clients lose the benefit of the freelancer’s creative expertise.

Enter Kunvay. Continue reading What is Kunvay?