Copyright Compliance in Private Companies: Challenges & Solutions
| Pages | 22-24 |
JUNE 20 11
22
“This is a great article.
I have to share it with the R&D
department.”
“Our sales will dramatically
increase when we post this product
review on our website.”
“I grabbed these free photos o
the web. Maybe I should email
them to our Australian oce
so they can include them in
marketing materials.”
“I like to access the corporate
intranet on my tablet to read daily
press coverage.”
“It would be great if chapter three
of this eBook could be used in
the next training course for our
nancial team.”
These are just some of the w ays pe ople use a nd
share publishe d infor mation in comp anies t oday.
Col labo rati on is ess enti al in mod ern, e ffi cien t
organizatio ns, and digital sharing of copyright-p ro-
tecte d content is one of its major comp onents. In
this article, Vi ctoriano Colodrón, E xecutive Director
of RightsDirect , discusses the copyright compliance
challenges busin esses face as well as effective sol u-
tions t o these cha llenges.
In the United States alone, 75 percent of employees sur-
veyed by research rm Outsell in 2010 said they share
content with team members every week, and in many
cases, daily. Workers around the world are increasingly
sharing information, particularly online content. A 2011
FreePint survey revealed that more than 40 percent of
workers worldwide forward web content at least weekly.
The use of copyrighted works – in particular text and
image-based works – is intensive and pervasive in most
companies, and not only those with a strong research
component. Employees need to use and share valuable
information from print and digital sources for everything
from research, marketing and public relations to training
and product management. In today’s fast-paced, global
working environment, employees increasingly rely on
timely access to information in order to innovate, col-
laborate and stay ahead of the competition.
Organizations use many dierent types of content, includ-
ing scientic and technical information, nancial, legal
and business information, statistics, news, graphs and
photographs and other images. Employees may obtain
this information from a variety of sources including sci-
entic, technical and trade journals, books, magazines,
newspapers, websites and blogs. Access is typically gained
through subscriptions with publishers or agencies, from
document delivery and press-clipping agencies, and from
corporate intranets and the Internet.
Dealing with copy right
compliance
What do employees need to do when they want to share
a scientic article, a blog post, a photograph or statistical
information? How can they nd out whether specic con-
tent is copyright-protected or who the copyright owner
is? Whom should they contact in their company if they
have doubts about copyright protection or to secure the
necessary permissions?
While employee copyright awareness is higher than even
ve years ago, studies show that most workers still lack suf-
cient awareness of their responsibilities under intellectual
property (IP) laws, particularly when it comes to sharing
digital content. Many believe that content available on the
Internet can be shared without requesting permission.
They either assume they can forward articles from journals
they subscribe to, or they are unaware of whether – or
how to – clear the necessary rights. The Outsell study
revealed that 54 percent of knowledge workers surveyed
either do not think about the need to obtain copyright
COPYRIGHT
COMPLIANCE IN
PRIVATE COMPANIES:
Challenges & Solutions
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