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by Veronica Bergschneider

Created on: July 03, 2010

As in other areas concerning intellectual property, people often wonder whether content found on the Internet should be free for the taking. According to United States copyright law, as soon as a piece of work is set down in writing, it legally belongs to the person who created it. By this definition, anyone else who uses more than a reasonable amount of quotes without the author’s permission and/or does not give credit to the original author has plagiarized his or her work.

For this reason, written works and performances of the works found online should not be assumed to be free for the taking. When an author or musician states on the website to which the work is posted that it may be reproduced free of charge, that constitutes permission for others to use the work as they see fit.

In cases where this is not explicitly stated, the correct thing to do is check with the site administrator for contact information on the author. Write the author a polite e-mail asking permission to use some of his or her work. Oftentimes, the author will be glad to see his or her original work reproduced, as it may bring more curious people to learn from the work. Sometimes, however, there may be a fee charged by the author for reproducing more of his or her work than one generally would for an academic research project.

Regardless of whether the work obtained from the Internet was free or a fee has been paid, always give credit to the original author for what has been quoted. The manner and style of handling this task will depend upon the way in which a work is used. Each department of a university or site upon which one may need to quote another’s work in an article will have its own rules for how to attribute the quote. Always follow those rules to avoid plagiarism and maintain others’ respect as a writer. Each writer, artist, and musician must eventually face the question of whether his or her work should be added to the online community for others to use free of charge, and it is a personal, and sometimes, per work decision. Since the eventual goal of creating such works is to generate monetary income, the posters of the intellectual property must choose wisely how they would like their works used by others in the course of research or enjoyment.

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