Recently, I wrote a guide based on information found in an online article.  carefully, I gave credit where credit was due and cited the article where the infomation came from. After writing the article, I looked around at other guides and pulled up one that was almost word for word, including diagrams of  the article I had cited. My first thought was that someone would think that I took the information from another guide. After thinking it through, I realized that many people just don't understand the way to handle copyrighted material.

Maybe, many people don't realize what they can or cannot do. So I will do my best to share. Maybe the copyright issue bugs me so much because I teach research writing to students, and many just don't get it. Students have been use to the lower elementary grades where a report was cutting pictures out of a magazine and copying information word for word for a report and putting their name on the page as author. Not wanting to discourage little ones, we say "how nice". No wonder as people write, they have ingrained in them that same mentality. Let me take some time to explain what can and cannot be done.

First of all, the obvious, we can't take another person's work, put our name on it and claim it as our own. The response might be, only one part, one paragraph, one anything. Bottom line, if we didn't think of it, it isn't our work. Atlas, we might say, we shall paraphrased or summarize it. Still not our own.  What do we do?

If the work is published research, then all we have to do is give the person credit for the part we used. This means if they used research, wrote in a certain way, gave information that is not common knowledge, then easy, give the person credit for the work. All we have to do is say according to... or such and such said. Another way, is to get permission form the author and state permission was given.

You might say that if the work is not copyrighted, then we don't have to cite it. Wrong. Did you know that the minute someone writes something it is copyrighted. Even email. This information was learned at an Intel workshop that I attended. The reality is we can't go around copying and pasting from someone else's auctions. If we like what they write, email them for permission, or offer to pay for the right to use their work. Now, if the writing is 50 years old, we can use it provided the copyright was not renewed.

I am amazed after looking around online for ideas for my auctions, how many creative people allow information or art to be used as long as you give them credit or use a banner from their site.

A few years ago there was a lawsuit from Disney about a daycare that was using Mickey Mouse on their building. The fact is, Disney was right. They created Mikey Mouse. If we have a business and use someone else's material to get business, they need to be compensated. One time I went to a website that had a lot of Disney pictures and Disney clip art. It stated the pictures were public domain. Disney has no pictures that are public domain. Anyone that uses them needs to purchase a license or buy the licensed clip-art. Using someone else's work is like going to the grocery store, drinking a soda, and not paying for it.

This is what we should do:

Any work, or wording, or organizing that is not our own needs to be cited. If that information is found or worded by that one individual, it belongs to that person. We should not copy and paste from another article or auction. However, we don't need to cite common knowledge. For example the year, an inventor, place of birth, etc. If we are researching information for a product, and everyone says the same thing, we don't need to site that because it is common knowledge. We can use. Let's face it. How many ways can you say a bead is 4mm? Common sense is needed.

As sincere honest people, let's get with it on eBay and not violate copyrights by taking someone's wording in an auction, taking pictures, or writing guides using someone else's words. We have our own unique personalities that we put into the descriptions of our auctions, so let's get with it, so we can as eBay would say get "it". Please notice, I gave eBay credit for their word.