WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

RACHEL HOUGHTON, STC ASSOCIATE FELLOW

TWITTER: @RJHOUGHTON

EMAIL: RJHOUGHTON@GMAIL.COM

Contractors and consultants can get into some legal trouble if they don’t pay attention to the intellectual property rights regarding images and fonts.

The news carries stories of people and companies who ordered to pay thousands of dollars in fines for ignoring the intellectual property rights of others. Here is what you need to know to stay out of legal trouble with images and fonts, though you should also consult with a legal advisor if you have any questions or concerns.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGES – STOCK AGENCIES

When you need an image to illustrate a concept, where do most people go? The Internet. However, the Internet can be a minefield when it comes to knowing whether you can use an image, illustration, or photograph.

Your safest bet is to use a stock agency with royalty-free images. Licensing is clear from the beginning, and almost all websites require that you sign a content licensing agreement, besides a specific content (images, audio, video) agreement. Agencies often have both standard license usage (uses which do not use the image for resale purposes) and extended license usage (uses which do allow use of the image for resale purposes, up to a certain amount). You must be careful to note which images allow an extended license usage, and budget for that use, if you’re using the image to make money. Standard license usage covers the use by most technical communicators.

LICENSING COMMON USAGES

The following common usages are courtesy of istockphoto.com, but are probably similar among all the agencies that provide royalty-free images for licensing.

• Advertising and promotional projects, including printed materials, product packaging, presentations, film and video presentations, commercials, catalogues, brochures, and promotional greeting cards and/or postcards (not for resale or license)

• Books and book covers, magazines, newspapers, editorials, newsletters, and video, broadcast, and theatrical presentations

• Online or electronic publications

• Prints, posters, and other reproductions for personal or promotional purposes (such as those listed in the first bullet), but not for resale

POPULAR STOCK AGENCIES

Be sure to carefully check the content licensing agreement before purchasing from an agency to make sure what you’re planning is a permitted use. The following lists a few of the most popular stock agency sites.

• iStock Photo by Getty Images: http://www.istockphoto.com/ (styles: photos, illustrations, video, audio, and editorial)

• Getty Images: http://www.gettyimages.com/ (styles: creative, editorial, video, and music)

• Shutterstock: http://www.shutterstock.com/ (styles: photos, vectors, editorial, illustrations, icons, and footage)

• Corbis Images: http://www.corbisimages.com/ (styles: creative and editorial)

• Corbis also has separate sites for:

• Creative and editorial motion clips: http://www.corbismotion.com/

• Affordable stock photography, illustrations, and fonts: http://www.veer.com/

• Music, film clips, celebrities, and iconic properties: http://www.greenlightrights.com/

• Big Stock Photo: http://www.bigstockphoto.com/ (styles: creative and illustrations)

PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGES - CREATIVE COMMONS

But what do you do if you don’t have a big budget? You can use Creative Commons licensing to find images, media, and music. Creative Commons allows individuals and companies a standardized way to keep copyright while allowing certain uses of their work.

http://creativecommons.org/

CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSING

A pool of works are available to the public for free and legal use under the terms of their six copyright licenses, which include:

• Attribution (CC BY): This license allows distribution and changing of an original work, even commercially (for sale or resale purposes), as long as the artist is credited for the original work. This is the most open of the Creative Commons licenses.

• Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA): This license allows distribution and changing of an original work, even commercially, as long as the artist is credited for the original work and the new work is licensed under identical terms (the new work has to have the same attribution). This license is used by Wikipedia.

• Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND): This license allows for commercial and non-commercial distribution, as long as the work is unchanged and uncropped, and the artist is credited for the work. This license would be good for using images in a presentation or blog post.

• Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC): This license allows for changing the original work for non-commercial purposes, with credit to the artist, but the new work does not have to be licensed under the same terms.

• Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA): This license allows for changing the original work for non-commercial purposes, with credit to the artist, and the new work must be licensed under the same attribution.

• Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND): This license is the most restrictive, only allowing downloading and sharing of the original work, with credit to the artist, but no changing of the work or commercial use.

SEARCHING CREATIVE COMMONS

• Now that you know what kind of licensing is available, you can use the search tool on several sites to find images you can use. However, since there is no registration to use a Creative Commons license, you should always follow the link for an image in a search to verify usage. The following sites allow search for Creative Commons usage on images, media, and video:

• Europeana: http://www.europeana.eu/portal/usingeuropeana_search.html (Search for an image, then filter by copyright)

• Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ (Click the See more link in each section to search for images under each type of licensing)

• Google Images: http://images.google.com/ (Type in the search bar, then follow the link to verify the attribution. This search often brings up Flickr images too.)

• Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page/ (Type in the search bar, then look for the attribution. Each media file has its licensing specified on its file description page.)

CREATIVE COMMONS EXAMPLE

For example, the following image (used on page 19 of the final Summit Program) is licensed under CC BY terms.

FONTS – LICENSED

You can also get into legal trouble by not having the correct licensing for your fonts. All font software is licensed, not purchased. Even the fonts that come on your computer or with software are subject to an end user license agreement (EULA). Granted, most of us don’t read the often pages-long EULA document, but the standard fonts you use on a regular basis are covered under that EULA and/or a separate font licensing EULA.

For example, Adobe has a section in the US English EULA, section 14.7 Font Software, that governs usage of their fonts. Because they have so many different type products, you can find more information in their Font Licensing Center (http://www.adobe.com/products/type/font-licensing/end-user-licensing-agreements.html/).

TYPE FOUNDRIES

Licensed fonts are also available through type foundries. Most of the type foundries are available at multiple font websites. Each website has a page talking about their font licensing options, which usually include a standard end user license, an extended multi-user license, a web server license, and an Embedded OpenType license for web embedding and non-commercial purposes. The most common and popular font websites are listed below.

• Fonts.com: http://www.fonts.com/info/services/licensing-options/

• Linoptye: http://www.linotype.com/25/fontlicensing.html/

• MyFonts: http://www.myfonts.com/ (Choose a font, then click Licensing to see the usage. Be sure to read the EULA provided with each usage type.)

FREE FONTS (NOT RECOMMENDED)

So what if you haven’t managed to buy a font? You can always download a free font. Unfortunately, most free fonts are for personal use only. Also, just because you find a font for free on a website, does not mean it’s actually free. The font could be pirated or uploaded by someone who does not know about licensing. Many websites that offer free fonts also provide a link to donate to the font author. It is advisable to be very careful when using free fonts. Do not use them for anything other than personal use unless the website is specific about commercial use.

FONT WEBSITES

You can get freeware, shareware, or public domain fonts from the following websites, which is not an inclusive list:

• dafont.com: http://www.dafont.com/ (This website is very careful to point out that the license usage is above the Download button, and that if a license is not present, it’s because they don’t have information about it, not that it’s free.)

• FontSquirrel: http://www.fontsquirrel.com/ (These are free fonts that are for commercial use. They have worked hard to indicate what uses are available for each font, by using symbols for commercial desktop use, font embedding, ebooks and PDFs, and applications.)

• FontSpace: http://www.fontspace.com/ (This website has a disclaimer saying that all fonts are checked periodically to make sure that they are freeware, shareware, or under an open source license. They recommend contacting the font designer for correct licensing.)