Published by deborah.woehr on 05 Feb 2006 at 02:08 pm
Copyrighting Your Blog
Firefox has an extension where you may copyright the posts of your blog with an ESBN. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, ESBN stands for Electronic Standard Book Number. These numbers are used to copyright electronic works, including ebooks, software, MP3’s, blogs, etc.
I thought this was interesting and installed it on my browser. In order to generate ESBN numbers, you’ll have to register with ESBN.org The process is easy, but I have concerns about the security of this system. One user pointed out that anyone can steal someones content simply by changing the wording a bit before they register your content under a a new ESBN number.
I tested it out on Chapter 14, Scene 1: Finished, and it works well enough. But I’ve come to the conclusion that it will be a pain to provide numbers for each and every post.
Unless I decide to post short stories, articles or digital images on this blog, I won’t be using this feature.
A plugin is available for WordPress users called Blog Copyright. What this does is display dated © symbols for your posts and more. Click on the link to learn more or to download.
There is, of course, the popular Creative Commons License, which is widely used.
Another service you may be aware of is Copyscape, which offers a free service to scan the web for copycats. Also check out their resource page to find out how you can fight back against plagiarism.
Benjamin Solah on 05 Feb 2006 at 4:08 pm #
I used to have a creative commons button on my old blog, but I forgot about it when I moved, I really have to look into it again. The copyscape thing is cool.
Lee Pletzers on 06 Feb 2006 at 4:55 am #
I’m using it now for DAOD and my ebook I’m putting together.
It’s a good thing.
Thanks Deb!!!
Fredcq on 06 Feb 2006 at 5:17 am #
This is great idea and may ease some of my paranoia! Thanks for posting!
melly on 06 Feb 2006 at 5:37 am #
Deborah, this may be a good idea for blogging or for electronic publishing but not so much for your fiction unless you intend to to publish it yourself or online.
Publishers compalin when authors copyright their work because there’s bound to be changes and they want to be able to negotiate rights and they need permission etc. before they publish. So I’d recommend not to copyright something you intend to publish in the “normal” channels.
deborah.woehr on 06 Feb 2006 at 8:36 am #
Ben: I forgot to tack the CC button on my blog, too. I’m glad I did because I like the “Do Not Copy” directive of Copyscape.
Lee: I’ll be using the ESBN for my ebooks. Yes, this is a nice tool.
Fred: It would be nice if we didn’t have to worry about thieves. This tool should help weed them out. For unauthorized copying (those who take your whole article without permission), we have Google to help out.
Melly: That’s good advice. I’ve read that traditional publishers consider anything posted online as published, and therefore won’t consider your work. Since I’m still not seeing a big market for ghost stories in the traditional arena, I’ve decided to self-publish Prosperity.
Dennis D. McDonald on 07 Feb 2006 at 12:48 pm #
I think any notice that tells users you intend to claim some kind of ownership rights over your creations is a good thing. You may want to investigate the legal status of registration systems, thouogh, given that under U.S. law, at least, copyright exists from the moment you create something. I discuss this and other issues here in “Can Web 2.0 Co-Exist with Static Publishing Systems?” which is located here:
http://ddmcd.squarespace.com/web_2_stat_pub.html