Boot Camp

Web Authoring Boot Camp
Intellectual Property
Owners/creators have legal property rights over creations of the mind, both artistic and
commercial. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights
to intangible assets such as musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, discoveries and
inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Know where your content and images
come from, and be sure you/the client has the contracted rights to use this content.
Copyright
Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work,
including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. Copyright does not protect
ideas, only their expression or fixation. In most jurisdictions copyright arises upon fixation
and does not need to be registered. Copyright owners have the exclusive statutory
right to exercise control over copying and other exploitation of the works for a specific
period of time, after which the work is said to enter the public domain. Uses which are
covered under limitations and exceptions to copyright, such as fair use, do not require
permission from the copyright owner. All other uses require permission and copyright
owners can license or permanently transfer or assign their exclusive rights to others.
Public Domain
The public domain is a range of abstract materials, commonly referred to as intellectual
property, which are not owned or controlled by anyone. These materials are therefore
considered “public property”, and available for anyone to use for any purpose. A work
may be in the public domain if no laws establish proprietary rights over the work, or if
the work or its subject matter are specifically excluded from existing laws.
Licensing
Licensing means you purchase the right to use an image, text, pdf, etc. under terms set
out in a license. The rights are set out in the license, which is a legally binding agreement
between the buyer and the seller.
Royalty-Free
Royalty-free means that you pay once for an image that can be used (but not passed on to
anyone else) for multiple purposes over an unlimited period of time. You still need to be
careful how you use it. For example, if the image features recognizable people and you
know of no model release, then do not use the image for promotional purposes.
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