There's been a lot of debate on the net again lately about individuals posting works they didn't create. While people used to claim that if something was on the internet it was necessarily free, now the most common excuse is that the poster is “helping” the creator along by giving them publicity. Besides, as long as they give an image credit it's OK. Right?

Wrong!

If you want to help someone else along, then take the time to contact that person and express a desire to do so. If you are in too much of a hurry to message them or send an email and to wait for a reply, then you're obviously not in this to help them. Are you?

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/wr03719.html)has this to say about copyright: “When you own copyright on a work YOU CAN CONTROL HOW IT'S USED. Others who want to use the work have to buy or otherwise GET YOUR PERMISSION. You can limit use to protect the value of the copyrighted work.” (emphasis mine)

So a person who creates a work and retains the copyright gets to say who can use it and how – but he can also say who CAN'T use it. And it's her right to decide such things on a case by case basis.

Copyright is, in its very simplest terms, the right to CONTROL the use of a work throughout the duration of the copyright. In order to respect copyright, you have to respect the artist's control over the use of the work.

The only way to do that is to either go directly to the artist for consent every time you want to use one of his works, or to select licensed works when you need artwork for a project. Look for works on sites (like Wikimedia Commons and Flickr) that use Creative Commons or similar public licenses. Or use a stock image site that has its own licensing terms.