In a [previous post](https://steemit.com/art/@kay-leclerc/the-1-money-sucking-problem-creators-face) I wrote about copyright for the creators. A recent court case involving Naruto, a crested macaque, leads me to write about copyright for users. 

<center>https://steemitimages.com/DQmfJFsJpoVKQj7ejy7V66vWYXLqhXAD3yQExoVpAXvDX2U/selfie-413162_640.jpg</center><center>[Source](https://pixabay.com/)</center>

Here are the important bits of the recent court case involving Naruto - or the grinning selfie monkey as he is known on the net. A few years ago a professional photographer accidentally left his camera in an Indonesian jungle. Naruto picked it up and snapped a series of “selfies” - arguably the first animal selfie to make its way to the net. PETA decided to sue the photographer over who held the copyright. They claimed that the monkey had taken the pictures, not the photographer, thus Naruto actually held copyright and the photographer could not sue anyone for infringement. 

PETA was recently shot down in court even though their argument does present some interesting legal wrinkles. You can read more about it [here]( https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/monkey-naruto-no-copyright-court_us_5ade8786e4b0b2e811328d58 ) or just enter “monkey selfie” in a browser search.

So, even if you are a macaque in the jungle, you must still understand and follow copyright law. What exactly does that mean?

The number one concept you need to wrap your mind around is that ***you, the user, NEVER EVER own the copyright***. Only the creator of the work - whether it’s text, a photo, a video, a sound file, or an image - owns that copyright. That ownership begins the instant the original creator posts the work online or publishes it through other channels. 

You, as the user, are granted a license for use by the copyright owner. The owner does not need to use a copyright symbol, or put their name on the work for it to be protected by copyright law. You can not assume that if it’s on the net somewhere and lacking that copyright symbol it’s free to use. In fact, you must assume exactly the opposite!

Each copyrighted file you download or use from the net carries its own license even if this license isn’t spelled out. The implied license for use grants you the ability to watch the video, listen to the sound file, look at the image or read the text. 

It does NOT give you the right to change the file, sell the file, or re-distribute the file. You can’t use the file to make a new work. You can’t post an image or video or sound file or photo to Facebook, or Pinterest or your own blog and add the original creator’s name without a license to do so. Just adding the creator’s name does not make it legal.

One of the best known copyright licenses is *Creative Commons* or CC for short. A CC license is used when an author wants to give the public the right to share, use, and build upon a work that they have created. There are several Creative Commons use licenses that define different categories of use. 

**CC0** is often called Public Domain and carries no restrictions on use at all. Old work that has fallen out of copyright due to age is also Public Domain. However, recent changes to copyright law allows the family of the original creator to hold copyright far after the death of the creator. In general, unless the work was made prior to the 1920’s or so, it is not safe to assume it is within the Public Domain. 

Here are the other 4 major categories of use:

*  **BY** - users may copy, distribute, display and perform the work and make derivative works and remixes based on it only if they give the author credit which often includes attaching a specified url to the work.

* **SA** - (share-alike) users may distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs the original work. 

* **NC** - (non-commercial) users may copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and make derivative works and remixes only when no money is being charged for the work.

* **ND**- (no derivative) users may copy, distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of the work and may not make any changes to the original whatsoever

These main categories are often “mixed and matched” into the licenses shown in the image below.

<center>https://steemitimages.com/DQmWCqhKRs8hDwTFMZsUAeWHzFUpujfCti25Q24VZyJHjB9/copyright-types.png</center><center>[Source](https://www.wikipedia.org/)</center>

Websites, especially news outlets, often purchase the rights to some images, videos and sound files and allow users to copy that licensed content **ONCE**. For example - for use on their own blog with attribution given to the news site, not necessarily the original creator. The licensing terms can be found on the site. Extreme care must be taken when copying work from a site such as a news site for use on your own post, or comment. If you can not find content re-use terms on the site do NOT copy and use the content. You could be in violation of copyright and liable for monetary damages not only from the original creator but from the site you downloaded from that purchased a license to the original work.

Another term that can be confusing is ***Fair Use***. Fair Use is a part of US Copyright Law that *permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder*.

If you are commenting upon or critiquing a copyrighted work - for instance, writing a book review - fair use allows you to reproduce some of the work to achieve the purpose of the review. The copied work must be limited to a paragraph or two at most, or a few bars of music, or a sentence or two of a lyric or poem. The operative word is **LIMITED**.

Fair use also covers parody and public figures. You can create an entire TV show - *Our Cartoon President* as an example - based on parodies of **PUBLIC** figures. You can not do a TV show, or sell a collection of drawings based on Disney characters or Marvel super heros. They are not “public figures”. And Disney or Marvel will sue your socks off.

<center>https://steemitimages.com/DQmakQtvEszmw3UiCu7PzUeqxkDc9eeAWrpFjeDqq5RBqWN/hulk.jpg</center><center>[Source](https://pixabay.com)</center>

While it is morally wrong to use someone else’s hard work for your own advantage, you can also be on the hook legally and the financial penalties can be severe. Let’s say you post something that you don’t have a legal license for on Facebook or YouTube. The potential penalty is a fixed dollar amount times the number of people who viewed or listened to that work. The fixed dollar amount is often hundreds or even thousands of dollars. That viral YT vid using unlicensed content with 232,000 views can leave you digging through a dumpster for food when the original creator comes after you.

If the country where you live doesn’t have copyright laws you are still not off the hook. Several international court cases have ruled that the server location governs copyright, not the destination location. Since FaceBook, Pinterest, Google, YouTube and millions of other website servers are located in the U.S. - your unlicensed use falls under U.S. copyright law regardless of where you live.


While the blockchain vs server location can and will change how we look at copyright law, I am heartened to see the Steemit community response to plagiarism and copyright infringement. Creators rights are recognized, and unsourced or plagiarized material is downvoted. Image sites such as [Pixabay](https://pixabay.com), [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com), [VisualHunt](https://visualhunt.com) and many more are frequently suggested by the community as places to obtain all the images you could want for your Steem posts with clear, easy to understand licensing and attribution rights.

Even though smiling monkeys can’t benefit from copyright laws, original creators can, and should. As a member of the Steemit community, it’s up to all of us to respect both the work and the rights of the creators by using licensed work correctly. 

<center>https://steemitimages.com/DQmTDLNSwrxM4R85rA2qsR18pugncTy5FDhVf5gJBoW5vLm/signature.gif</center>