Copyright Archives - Sara Hawkins Attorney at Law

Will Using a Social Media Hashtag Really Make You Legally Liable to Delta Airlines (or Any Company for that Matter)?
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Will Using a Social Media Hashtag Really Make You Legally Liable to Delta Airlines (or Any Company for that Matter)?

Copyright, Instagram, Social Media

Will Using a Social Media Hashtag Really Make You Legally Liable to Delta Airlines (or Any Company for that Matter)?

It appears that on or about December 20, 2017 Delta Airlines updated their SkyMiles Program Rules to include a section entitled "User-Generated Social Media Image Rights" whereby you would grant a very broad license for use of your image simply by using the hashtag #SkyMilesLife and/or #DeltaMedallionLife on your social media channel. By tagging [...]

By Sara Hawkins|2021-02-04T08:45:11-07:00December 21st, 2017|Copyright, Instagram, Social Media|6 Comments

Avoiding Copyright Infringement When Sharing Other People’s Work
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Avoiding Copyright Infringement When Sharing Other People’s Work

Blogging, Copyright, Facebook, Instagram, Social Media

Avoiding Copyright Infringement When Sharing Other People’s Work

Some people like to call it ‘content curation’. Really, it’s just a fancy way to say you want to share work that is not yours. In theory, this sounds like a really nice thing, sharing someone’s work and giving them an audience beyond their own. In reality, though, it’s intertwined with copyright law; which [...]

By Sara Hawkins|2020-09-05T09:50:07-07:00March 23rd, 2016|Blogging, Copyright, Facebook, Instagram, Social Media|2 Comments

Legal Ins and Outs of Live Streaming in Public

Live streaming has been around for a number of years. But until Meerkat and Periscope we didn't have a very portable way to live stream video. There was Google Hangouts, which is a live streaming service, but the mobile app didn't really make it easy for mobile and active use. You could record short video [...]

By Sara Hawkins|2020-05-14T13:05:44-07:00October 5th, 2015|Business Law, Copyright, Social Media, Trademark|155 Comments

The Difference Between Copyright Infringement and Plagiarism

I think it's in high school when most of us had the concept of plagiarism shoved down our throat. It was all part of the lessons about citations and the MLA format or the Chicago Style Manual or whatever it was your teacher used to put the fear of getting an F in you. [...]

By Sara Hawkins|2022-09-01T09:36:23-07:00October 21st, 2014|Business Law, Copyright, Social Media|34 Comments

The Difference Between Copyright and Trademark And Why You Need to Know

It's not uncommon to find a news article that misuses copyright and trademark, as if they are interchangeable. Sometimes, even lawyers misunderstand their differences. But you don't have to make their same mistakes. I'm here to help explain the difference between copyright and trademark and why knowing the differences is important for you as [...]

By Sara Hawkins|2020-05-14T13:10:24-07:00June 9th, 2014|Business Law, Copyright, Trademark|13 Comments

The Insider’s Guide to Online Photo Use

You know in passing when you say to someone "We should do a G+ hangout!" and they say yes, that's how this happened. While I've written about Photo Copyright on several different sites, Peg Fitzpatrick instantly agreed to do a Google + hangout about online photo use because we both find it frustrating to [...]

By Sara Hawkins|2020-05-27T09:22:24-07:00May 15th, 2014|Blogging, Copyright, Social Media|9 Comments

Who Owns The Oscars Photo That Broke Twitter

Oscar Photos By now you've likely seen the above photo. The one Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres posted to her Twitter account during the 2014 Oscars telecast. You know, the one taken with the new Samsung phone as part of the big sponsorship package for the broadcast. You can see that this image now has [...]

By Sara Hawkins|2020-05-14T13:13:16-07:00March 4th, 2014|Copyright, Social Media, Twitter|14 Comments

Creative Commons Licenses Explained In Plain English

One of the best ways to find usable copyrighted works, especially images, is to find someone who wants to share their work under a Creative Commons license. Since 2002, Creative Commons has been giving creators a way to share their work without having to relinquish copyright or individually license their work. These licenses have [...]

By Sara Hawkins|2020-09-05T09:01:53-07:00February 14th, 2014|Blogging, Copyright, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Social Media|59 Comments

Copyright and Attribution on Instagram

instagram copyright You're familiar with the hugely popular photo- (and video) sharing app called Instagram, right? That's more of a rhetorical question, really, since you've come to my site. I'll work under the assumption that you not only know what Instagram is but also have it on at least one of your mobile devices. [...]

By Sara Hawkins|2020-05-14T13:18:29-07:00January 15th, 2014|Copyright, Instagram, Social Media|95 Comments

Your Copyright Notice Status Update On Facebook Is Worthless

Update: In 2014 I now have many more friends on Facebook so I'm seeing this Facebook copyright notice nonsense again. It was worthless in 2012, and it's still worthless in 2014. Original Post: Evidently, my lack of friends on Facebook means I don't have this nonsense cluttering up my feed. In response to the [...]

By Sara Hawkins|2020-05-14T13:24:07-07:00November 26th, 2012|Copyright, Facebook, Social Media|3 Comments