If you work as a freelance writer long enough, it’s bound to happen: Something you’ve written will be infringed. Whether it’s marketing copy being lifted by a competitor, a blog post pilfered by a scraper or something else altogether, the work you were paid for will be used by someone else unlawfully.
But putting a stop to it can actually be very difficult. There are three parties involved, the infringer, the client and yourself. The dynamics between the three of them are, at times, complicated.
So who has the responsibility and/or the ability to enforce copyright in freelance-created works? The answer is fairly complicated and depends heavily on the situation.
However, with some planning before the contract is signed, these issues can be ironed out easily and headaches down the road can be avoided. [Read more…]
Freelance writers don’t just write for their clients. Most have sites of their own where they both post for themselves and, due to the increasing interactivity of websites in general, accept comments, postings and other material from users.
