The Ins & Outs of Digital Rights Management
Copyright issues have been around for years, and while the specifics of license and copyright agreements for text are pretty straightforward, digital rights management when it comes to images is a whole other story. Chances are that if you’ve ever needed to use an image for your website, blog or newsletter, you probably just googled it and used your favorite one. What you may not realize is that you were likely infringing on a copyright.
You may be thinking that it’s not a big deal to just grab an image off the internet and use it for your own purposes, but that just means you haven’t been hit with a fine yet. With copyright infringement fines ranging anywhere from thousands to upwards of a million dollars, you need to make sure you have a plan in place to avoid a lawsuit.
So what are the steps to a great digital rights management plan?
- Outline image procedures: The first step to a successful digital rights management plan is to make sure you have image procedures in place. This makes it easy to train new hires and it gives everyone in your company a doc to reference to make sure that they are following set guidelines on how to find images. This procedure doc should include a list of websites that you have license agreements with, as well as steps detailing how to check the licenses on images found elsewhere. Creating guidelines for image use helps ensure that no one on your team makes the mistake of using a prohibited image.
- Train your staff: Once you have your procedures in place, you need to make sure that the staff understands them. Having procedures won’t help if no one on your team follows the guidelines you have in place. You may think you don’t have the time to train your employees on image copyrights, but trust us when we say that spending a half hour training your employees is better than having to pay thousands in fees.
- Store your licenses: There are a variety of sites that give you access to thousands of images, and you need to make sure that if you join one, you keep the licenses associated with them. You don’t ever want to run into a problem where you know you are legally allowed to use an image and can’t prove it. These licenses expire and it’s important to keep track of what content you’re allowed to use and how long you’re allowed to use it for.
- Understand the repercussions: You may know that you’re supposed to give credit where credit is due, but what you may not realize is that you can get some serious fines when it comes to digital rights management. Make sure you understand how important it is to not be breaking any laws, and then make sure you let your employees know. If they don’t know how serious it is, they’re not going to put in time to make sure they are well within image copyright laws.
No one wants to be hit with a huge fine, whether it’s due to a mistake or not, so make sure you have a proper digital rights management plan in place. Trust us when we saw you don’t want to wait until it’s too late. Click here to learn more about digital rights management.