What is Copyright?
While there are basic laws that protect tangible property, Copyright protects intellectual property, such as artwork, writings, and computer programs, that often do not have a tangible nature of their own. Copyright does not protect ideas, but the expression of those ideas. Copyright also does not protect facts, but only the creative expression of those facts.
For example, if you write a FAQ and submit it to GameFAQs, it is protected by copyright. Your method for beating a particular boss is not protected, as that's an idea, although your description is protected. The number of hit points that boss has is not protected, no matter how hard it was to come up with, but your personal description of the boss is protected, as that's something you created.
For more information, nolo.com has many articles on Copyrights and Trademarks and how they work. Brad Templeton's 10 Big Myths about Copyright is one of the best-written guides on the subject for people unfamiliar with the subject, and for those in the US, the US Copyright Office has all the detailed information you need.
What is Fair Use?
Per the US Copyright Office, the Fair Use doctrine of copyright law states that limited portions of a copyrighted work may be used for commentary, criticism, reporting, and educational purposes. While the circumstances of what is and isn't Fair Use are never clearly defined, using major portions or the entirety of someone else's work does not fall within Fair Use. Additionally, competing works are normally excluded from any "Fair Use" at all.
For example: You are probably well within your fair use rights to quote text from a game; it's a limited amount of information, you are using the information for a different purpose, and you're not creating a competing product. However, if you were to quote text from the official strategy guide for the game, this likely is not considered Fair Use, as you are creating a competing product. Someone who posts a copy of your guide on another site and claims it's "Fair Use" is clearly in the wrong.
What information can I use from other sources without permission?
Without permission, you are still free to use facts and other non-creative information. Of course, you still must provide credit to the source of information in your own guide; if you don't, you are plagiarizing.
For example, you could get the hit points for the enemies in a game from the official strategy guide for that game and post them in your own guide in your own format. These are facts, and not protected by copyright. However, if you were to copy the guide's strategy on how to beat the boss, that would be a copyright infringement, as you are copying their creative work. Copying the format of the table of hit points would also be a violation of their copyright.
What is Plagiarism?
Simply put, plagiarism is the taking of information from a source and claiming it as your own. If you read a boss strategy in another guide and re-create in your own words, if you don't credit the original source of the information, you're plagiarizing.
Copyright infringement is not always plagiarism, and plagiarism is not Copyright infringement. One is a legal matter, the other is an ethical matter. Both should be avoided at all costs when creating your guide.
How do I Copyright my FAQs?
Thanks to modern laws, your FAQ is protected by Copyright law the instant it's published online. For your own protection, you should also always include a one-line copyright notice in your work: Copyright (year) (your name)
For example: Copyright 2002 John Doe.
You should not include the phrase "Unpublished Work" in your guide, as once it's been made public, it's been published. Also, you should always use your legal name instead of an alias in your copyright notice, unless you have actually registered that alias as a business name with the local government. If you use an unregistered alias, proving your ownership of the document could be difficult should it become necessary.
1. Link to all infringing material. If there is more than one item, such as pictures inside a guide, link to them too. Keep links as direct and specific as possible. Don't link to the person's main blog page, for example, link to the one blog entry that is in question. I try to keep one link per line to keep it easy to read. The trick here is that sometimes admins think they can be smart, disable right-click access, and prevent you from getting links. What they fail to realize, is that the right click menu isn't the only way to get URLs. If you encounter someone like this, go to the page that has the picture, click the FILE menu at the top of the screen, and choose SAVE AS. At the bottom is a drop down box labeled SAVE AS TYPE. Click the list and change it to save the HTML ONLY (name and location are irrelevant, just save it as HTML ONLY). Open your new file in a text editor such as Notepad and search it (Ctrl+F) for links to pictures. Common picture formats are .JPG, .BMP, and .PNG, so start the search by searching for one of those three extensions. Once you find links to pictures, verify they are the links you want by going to them. 2. Link to original material. Again, be as direct as possible, link directly to pictures, etc. If your originals are hosted in several places, it can never hurt to provide mirror links, so long as you specify they are mirrors. 3. A short description as to why you think the person is violating your copyright. 4. COPY AND PASTE THIS EXACTLY INTO YOUR EMAIL: I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the infringing web pages is not authorized by my registered copyright and by the law. I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner of an exclusive right that is infringed. 5. Your real name (include an "a.k.a." note including your online nickname, especially if that's how you are referred to in the original documents), full mailing address, and email.
If you did everything correctly and the hosting service cares about following the law, the infringing material will be removed. Again, be reasonable in how long you wait before you assume that you've been ignored. I like to give them 1 full week. If the company cares about following the law, but you forgot something, you'll get a reply stating the law over again. From my experience, they won't tell you what exactly you forgot or didn't mention. Just try again and be more specific. Sometimes the support email has an auto-response. If that's the case, read it thoroughly to see if there is anything you need to do to get in contact with an actual person. Another thing you can do is to contact the site's sponsors and advertisers. Losing a big company sponsor or advertiser can have a much larger effect than you alone can. There isn't anything specific to include in the contact like the DCMA notice above, but simply informing them that they are sponsoring a site that condones theft might make them stop sponsoring that site.
If the hosting service ignores you, that means that they are sharing the responsibility of copyright infringement. Another thing you can do is to contact the site's sponsors and advertisers. Losing a big company sponsor or advertiser can have a much larger effect than you alone can.
If you really want the content removed, at this point, your only remaining option is a lawyer, unfortunately. The good news however, is that you can hit both the individual person that violated your copyright AND the hosting service. If the hosting service and/or the individual want to settle, the money they give you should be more than what you paid for the lawyer.
Here's a list of some websites that have stolen guides in the past. You might want to check them out to see if they have your guide. Some of these sites appear to not even be valid sites anymore. They are kept here for reference.
- 911 Codes (www.911codes.com)
- 9 Lives (www.9lives.ru)
- Bean's Playstation Dimension (www.bean.ddk/psx/index.htm)
- Cheat CC (www.cheatcc.com)
- Cheat Database (www.cheat-database.com)<
- Cheat Index (www.cheatindex.com)
- Cheat Matrix (www.cheatmatrix.com)
- Cheat Search (www.cheatsearch.com)
- Cheat Stop (www.panstudio.com/cheatstop))
- Console Domain (www.consoledomain.co.uk))
- Dreamland (kirby.pokep.net)
- Game Express (www.gameexpress.com)
- Games Domain (www.gamesdomain.com)
- Mega Games (www.megagames.com)
- SabreTechDesign (www.sabretechdesign.comm)
- Square Haven (www.square-haven.net)
- Ultimate System (www.flatbedexpress.com))
Got questions? I'm sure you do. Don't send them to me, I hardly know the copyright laws myself, I got all this information off of websites. :P If you feel like spreading the word too, feel free to link to this document. :)
