Copyright claims are on the rise. In particular the misuse of third-party assets where the copyright holder seeks compensation.
After 8 years in this business, I’ve identified two common pitfalls where copyright infringement is concerned.
Pitfall #1: Proving you haven’t infringed copyright is tricky
Even if you’re adamant you have a good understanding of copyright law, it can be challenging proving you haven’t infringed anybody’s copyright. Especially if the asset was used years ago.
It’s impossible to expect any freelancer to know where they sourced an image from 2.5 years ago. Especially if your job involves sourcing third-party assets for multiple clients.
Pitfall #2: Your peers likely don’t understand copyright law
Sometimes it’s somebody else’s responsibility to find images and they don’t do it correctly.
You have a good understanding of copyright law, but the intern or summer temp you’ve hired, or the other freelancer you’ve outsourced to doesn’t and it’s landed your business in trouble.
My tips for avoiding copyright infringement claims
We’ve identified the common pitfalls, so what can we do to avoid copyright infringement claims?
Tip #1. Create an asset tracker.
Spreadsheets are your friend. They’re free, accessible and require next to no training. They’re the perfect companion for recording and managing where you sourced assets from and the license they’re used under.
When creating an asset tracker, you’ll want to log the:
- Original source. This is important because some people sneakily remove their assets from websites they’d previously uploaded and given permission to
- Type. Is it a blog post, newsletter or posted on social media?
- URL where it was published
- Publisher. Who was responsible for sourcing this? This is only applicable if there’s a team of people
- Status. Has it been published or is it under review?
- Publish date
- License. This could be a link to the licensing agreement from the website you’ve sourced it from, a note of permission from the copyright holder or a link to the receipt of purchase
This is the minimum data you’ll want to have at your disposal to quickly quash any copyright claims.
Tip #2: Write up an onboarding doc.
If you regularly outsource work to other freelancers or hire internally, provide an onboarding document so that everyone’s aligned with your approach to copyright.
Think about what’s important.
Details like:
- The websites you use to source assets from. Maybe there are 2 or 3 websites you prefer to use, like Canva and Unsplash
- An overview of licenses and what they mean. Creative commons, royalty free etc. Don’t be afraid to spell things out here i.e. “If the license is creative commons please credit the copyright holder”
- A link to the asset tracker spreadsheet so they can update it
Nobody is exempt from accusations of copyright infringement where the misuse of third-party assets are concerned. Whilst designers, marketers and bloggers all seem to be more at risk, anybody publishing assets to social media or their website is at risk.
Remember, your professional indemnity insurance is designed to help you defend accusations of copyright infringement. However, the purpose of this blog post is to help you avoid these accusations altogether!
