Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.

1: Upload Limit Increases to 15 Minutes For All Users

First off today, YouTube has increased the upload limit on videos to 15 minutes, up from the previous limit of 10. YouTube, however, attributes the change to its content ID system, which copyright holders use to monitor and enforce their work on the service. This, according to YouTube, has limited the site’s usefulness for infringement, making it possible to raise the limit, which was largely in place to limit infringing uses of the site’s services.

2: U.S. Copyright Group ‘Steal’ Competitor’s Website

Next up today, mass litigator the U.S. Copyright Group has been accused of “stealing” a competitor’s website. The company, best known for filing thousands of infringement lawsuits over independent films, reused images and code from copyrightsettlements.com. The latter company has confirmed they are not affiliated with the USCG and that they plan to file a cease and desist letter. Originally the two sites were almost identical but even a new, stripped-down version of the USCG’s site still reuses some of the code.

3: Attorneys for J.K. Rowling Request Dismissal in Copyright Suit

Finally today, attorneys for J.K. Rowling have responded to the “Willie the Wizard” lawsuit, which alleges much of Rowling’s book “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” is based on the book created by the late Adrian Jacobs. Rowling has asked the court to dismiss the suit saying that there is no evidence to show that she copied from Jacobs’ book and the pleading also took a few potshots at the work saying that the book was “very, very badly written.”

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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Tune in every Wednesday evening at 6 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

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This is very frightening for small business owners as, especially in this economy, paying even a small settlement can sink a struggling business. But even if the case doesn’t reach that point, having to do significant work to repair a site can be a burdensome expense.

However, for the most part, it is not small business owners themselves committing the infringements. Though very gifted in their areas of business, they are not exactly Web developers, much less copyright experts. Instead, they are good people who trusted the wrong company to develop their site and are now left holding the bag.

It’s a sad tale and its one that isn’t always easily avoided, but there are a few mistakes that small business makes when having someone building their site that can make these situations much more likely.

With that in mind, here’s some of the most common mistakes I see businesses make when building their Web presence, whether through a third party or themselves.

Poorly Sourced Images

I talked previously about why stock photos and templates are a bad combination but it also applies to non-template Web design. Many people, especially those not familiar with copyright law, don’t realize that the images that make up their site, especially stock photos and artwork, are copyright protected and the rights need to be cleared.

As image detection improves and stock photo companies get more and more aggressive about enforcement, this is an especially dangerous mistake.

You have to make sure every image that appears on your site has the right to do so and this means planning in advance.

How to Avoid: Every image that goes on your site needs to have a clear sourcing record. If you purchase a site from a design firm, ensure that they provide receipts for the images that are used or some clear sourcing. Furthermore, ensure that you can use them legally on your site.

An ounce of prevention is really worth a pound of cure here.

Accepting Untrustworthy Text

It is one thing to hire a design firm to build a site, but another to hire one to write the content for it, especially when it is specialized.

I routinely see martial arts studios, doctor’s offices, roofers and other specialized companies turn their Web site’s content over to their design firm or other writers with no specialization in the field or even knowledge of it. This is a sure-fire way to either:

1. Pay More: As writers have to do large amounts of research to be able to provide worthwhile content.
2. Get Poor Quality Content: Writers, unfamiliar with the field, produce error-ridden content that’s embarrassing.
3. Infringe Copyright: Authors, pressed by time and lack of knowledge, will often just lift and rewrite content from elsewhere.

Your text has to be vetted the same as your images but you shouldn’t put yourself at risk needlessly. Having your content written by professional authors in your field will, in the long run, save you time and money as well as give you better quality content.

They might have a higher rate, but they can turn it around more quickly and the odds of a copyright issue go down drastically.

How to Avoid: If you can’t afford to pay an author in your field to write your content, write it yourself and have someone else edit it. Editing services are usually cheaper per word and it still ensures the content is yours. If you do want to hire someone, get someone reputable and knowledgeable in your field.

Just like you don’t pay a mechanic to fix your leaky roof, don’t hire someone to do the wrong job.

It Isn’t Too Late

Though this is all great advice for a company that is either building a new site or revamping an existing one, but it doesn’t seem to help those who have an established site.

However, it isn’t too late to go back and recheck your content. Doing this might not only help you catch problems before a copyright holder sees them, but may also alert you if your original content is being misused.

1. Use Tineye: Run your images through Tineye. It’s free and only takes a few seconds. It will find matches to your images that are in its database. Though it isn’t as powerful as paid solutions. It’s great for quick checks and should spot any obvious issues.
2. Use Copyscape/Plagium: Copyscape and Plagium are two services for detecting duplicate content in text works. Copyscape has a very cheap pro version (5 cents a search) and Plagium is free. Run your articles through it and see what turns up as matching.

For the most part, until you’ve received the notice of infringement, it isn’t too late to take action as disaster can be averted. But if there is a problem, every day is a gamble so it makes sense to act as quickly as possible.

Bottom Line

If you’re a small business, you probably don’t have a large legal team, a cushion of cash to pay off a copyright settlement or a large reputation that can stand up against large companies such as stock photo organizations. As such, you have to be careful about your copyright as every cent you spend fighting a copyright problem is money off of your own table and your employees’.

This is an area where prevention is the best medicine by far. If you keep these issues in mind and are aware of them as you build your site, the odds you’ll have problems reduce significantly.

In short, be smart about these issues and you likely won’t have a problem. Ignore them, and you truly are rolling the dice.

The bad news is that not every Web designer is also great photographers and artists. Even worse, those who are can’t always take or create all of the images they need for a layout.

The good news is that there is are millions of stock photo works created for the use in various Web site layouts as well as to go along side content. These works, usually, are more than adequate to fill that gap quickly and cheaply.

The other bad news though is that including stock photography in a theme that you wish to let others download is a dangerous move and may wind up creating legal trouble for the designer and user alike. Even worse, several stock photo agencies have been especially aggressive in this area, hitting up unintentional infringers for thousands of dollars in damages.

Stock photos and Web templates are a dangerous combination and one that must be used carefully and wisely.

The Problem

Let’s take a look at a scenario to illustrate why these two things do not go hand-in-hand as neatly as it would seem.

1. A designer is building a Web site template, either to sell on their site or to give away for free. He needs an image for the header and spends a few dollars on a Web-resolution stock image that looks great.
2. He finishes the theme and publishes it on his site.
3. Several users all download/purchase the theme and use it on their sites, complete with the header image.
4. Users are sent threatening letters from stock photo agency claiming that they are infringing their rights.
5. Users then point the designer, who then receives another letter claiming he is in violation of the license agreement.

The reason that this can (and regularly does) happen is because there are two legal issues with using stock photos in templates for general public consumption. The first is that most stock photo licenses forbid redistributing the image as part of a template, especially reselling it. An image is usually for use at the site it is sold for and does not give the purchaser the right to redistribute it as part of a package, essentially giving everyone who uses the theme an implied license to put it on their site for free or as part of the cost of the theme.

However, the more scary aspect is that the people using the theme, who often assume they have the right to use the theme out of the box, don’t have a license to use the image and become unwitting unlicensed users of the photo.

In short, everyone who downloads the theme, though they think they are being honest and complying with the law, become unwitting infringers. Though this fits the definition of innocent infringement, this hasn’t stopped many from being subjected to takedown notices, threatening letters and, in many cases, multi-thousand dollar settlement demands.

With little doubt, this is easily one of, if not the, most common ways a law-abiding Webmaster can find themselves on the wrong end of a copyright dispute. However, it is an issue that can easily be avoided.

Tips for Designers

If you’re a designer looking to distribute themes and/or templates, consider a few general guidelines.

1. Favor Public Domain/CC Works: Public domain works are ideal as no license or compliance is needed at all. CC licensed works, however, can also be useful since the license is universal. However, you will have to comply with the image’s license and put precautions to ensure that those who use the theme do so as well, especially if the image is licensed only for non-commercial use.
2. Clearly Source Used Images: Any content you use from others should be sourced clearly. A readme.txt file may be a good idea for this information. This is to let users know where images, JavaScripts, etc. came from and whether they can abide by the same license terms.
3. Read Licenses Carefully: Some images are available for use in themes or that right can be purchased for an additional fee. If you can find images that are, you can use them safely.
4. Work with Photographers and Artists Directly: Finally, if you’re making a theme that is for sale and want to be completely certain of the authenticity of the work, you will likely be better off working directly with an artist or photographer (or just creating the images yourself). This lets you draft the contract that you need and offers assurances of the work’s originality, preventing problems for you and others down the road.

However, designers aren’t the only ones who have to worry about these issues, the users of their templates and themes need to take precautions as well.

Tips for Users

Though it is tempting to download a theme and place it on your site without any thought to copyright, especially considering you downloaded it from a legal source, it is important to take a few minutes to make sure everything is ok.

1. Check the Licensing: When downloading a new theme, take a few moments to make sure that the designer followed the license on all of the images used and that you are willing to as well. If you are unsure where an image came from, you may be able to source it using Tineye but, if there is no clear sourcing, you’re most likely best avoiding the image. In short, ssume nothing and do not trust your designer to have done the work for you.
2. Replace Artwork: If you have to replace images, your own work is best, followed by works in the public domain and then CC-licensed images. However, since you are using the image on just your site, and not distributing it in the theme, you certainly can purchase stock photography cheaply and legally as well.
3. Focus on Larger Images: Finally, though a theme may contain many hundreds of images, it is the larger, more artistic ones that are most likely to become problems. Bullets, spacers and other design elements can be copyrighted in many cases and may become the subject of a dispute, most seem to stem from photographs used within the theme and other artistic works that are more than functional elements. The larger the image and the more work that went into it, the more careful you need to be in order to check the licensing.

Sadly, this advice also goes for those who purchase custom themes from designers. Though most designers are very good about ensuring that their themes contain nothing but legal content, I’ve heard many horror stories of others who have paid money to a designer only to find that many of the images were infringing.

The best thing to do is to trust nothing save your own research. The designer should make it as easy as possible to do that research, but you still have to make sure everything in on the right side of the law before hitting “publish”.

Bottom Line

The extreme enforcement by some stock photo agencies, in particular Getty Images, combined with the tendency for many Web designers to use stock photos in their themes has made for a recipe that has caused a lot of heartbreak and headache. Many people who thought they were using a legitimate theme have been caught up in this particularly nasty dragnet.

Designers need to be smart about the images they use in their work and users need to be less trusting of the content they download or purchase.

It is sad and frustrating, but a fact of the current copyright climate when it comes to stock images.

However, it seems to be working against the stock photo industry in many ways. More and more people are avoiding the use of such sites, in favor of CC-licensed works, and iStockPhoto recently decided to offer its customers assurances by providing a free $10,000 guarantee on all images bought.

It is clear that they are feeling the heat, but it is unclear if they see that they are the ones who lit the fire.