1 00:00:10,510 --> 00:00:13,710 Hey, hey, hey. And welcome to another episode of On Your Terms. 2 00:00:13,710 --> 00:00:23,260 I'm your host, Sam Vander Wielen, an attorney-turned entrepreneur who helps coaches, courts creators, and online service providers legally protect and grow their online businesses using my DIY Legal 3 00:00:23,260 --> 00:00:25,660 Templates and my Ultimate Bundle program. 4 00:00:25,660 --> 00:00:28,200 So, I am so excited to have t his episode today. 5 00:00:28,210 --> 00:00:36,970 This is a highly requested topic in my community because so many people want to learn more about making sure that they're sharing other people's content properly. 6 00:00:38,170 --> 00:00:48,150 A lot of people are concerned that the content that they're putting out there might be too closely inspired by or leaning on content that they've gotten from other people. 7 00:00:48,160 --> 00:00:57,790 So, I'm really excited because I'm hoping that today's episode will be like your one-stop shop resource for learning how to legally share other people's content, knowing 8 00:00:57,790 --> 00:01:03,850 how, when it's too close to the line of copying other people's content, and all that kind of stuff. 9 00:01:03,850 --> 00:01:13,810 So, in today's episode, I go over a number of things about copyrights, like copyright basics, like what copyrights - even - what copyright even is 10 00:01:13,810 --> 00:01:18,750 and what kind of content it falls, what falls under that category. 11 00:01:18,750 --> 00:01:26,240 I talk about who owns a copyright and how you can use somebody else's work legally, and I give you all of the different ways. 12 00:01:26,260 --> 00:01:29,650 Plus, we talk in depth about the fair use exception. 13 00:01:29,650 --> 00:01:38,860 You might have heard about that before, but you might be confused about what it is and how to know when it is - when something you're sharing is falling under the fair use exception. 14 00:01:38,870 --> 00:01:43,990 So, I go over all of those factors today, and I hope that you're going to love this episode. 15 00:01:44,380 --> 00:01:53,800 You'll also want to keep your eyes peeled when you're listening to this episode, because in just a couple of days I have a major new freebie that I'm dropping for you that was highly 16 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:58,780 requested, something I did a survey about, you might remember, but you are getting that in just a couple of days. 17 00:01:58,780 --> 00:02:00,700 It's a free legal email template. 18 00:02:00,700 --> 00:02:03,070 I'm so excited to share it with you. 19 00:02:03,100 --> 00:02:04,900 You'll want to keep your eyes peeled for that. 20 00:02:04,900 --> 00:02:10,330 And, other than that, I just want to get into it and help you learn how to legally share other people's content. 21 00:02:10,330 --> 00:02:20,050 So, let's do it. So, you know how they always say in marketing that you should market to 22 00:02:20,050 --> 00:02:23,960 people about what they want but then teach them what they really need. 23 00:02:23,980 --> 00:02:32,890 I feel like that's kind of what I have done in the past couple of years around copyright, like making sure you're not being a copycat and not copying other people's material. 24 00:02:32,890 --> 00:02:42,880 Because so many people come to me all fired up about like, "Is this person using my content?" "Is this person too close to me?" "Every time I create this, you know, program, this person creates a 25 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:47,440 similar program." And I always say, like, "Of course, we need to handle copyrights. 26 00:02:48,010 --> 00:02:49,530 Yes. Don't get me wrong. 27 00:02:49,530 --> 00:02:54,070 But we also need to make sure that you're not the copycat by accident." 28 00:02:54,070 --> 00:02:57,190 Not necessarily in that case, not like the one that you're worried about. 29 00:02:57,220 --> 00:03:03,230 I just kind of like to take care of the stuff in our own house before we go around criticizing everybody else's, right. 30 00:03:03,230 --> 00:03:13,180 Because so often online, I think that people are accidentally copying other people, or accidentally, quote-unquote, being inspired by other people, and 31 00:03:13,180 --> 00:03:14,800 it's a little too close for comfort. 32 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:21,160 But, yet, then they are the same ones that are going around looking at what everybody else is doing and thinking that it's too close to them. 33 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:31,000 So, this episode is both about making sure that you're not accidentally the copycat, but this episode is going to be super helpful for you if you're also somebody who 34 00:03:31,030 --> 00:03:40,690 is just really conscientious and you're really concerned about wanting to properly share content on your social media channels, on your website, inside of your 35 00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:43,120 courses and programs with your clients. 36 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:53,050 I get questions all the time from people about like, "How do I share this guide ?" Or, "How do we share this PDF or this part of this book or this chart that has been so helpful to me? 37 00:03:53,050 --> 00:04:00,340 I want to send it to my clients." So, this episode is going to be super helpful in working through some of those issues. 38 00:04:00,340 --> 00:04:10,090 Because the problem, from my perspective, is that when people don't understand how they're able to properly use or reference or share other people's content, it 39 00:04:10,630 --> 00:04:12,820 leads to two major problems. 40 00:04:12,850 --> 00:04:22,510 One is then the illegal use of that content just from a lack of awareness and not knowing, maybe it's accidental or maybe it's on purpose and you just don't care or whatever, 41 00:04:22,510 --> 00:04:25,600 but it's illegal use of that content. 42 00:04:25,630 --> 00:04:35,560 Or, we also see a lot of times people not using content that you'd be perfectly fine using, and that would be super helpful to your audience because you're so freaked 43 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:40,000 out about accidentally copying somebody else that you're like. 44 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:44,350 "Oh, I'm not. I'm just not going to share this." But, in reality it would actually be just fine. 45 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:49,270 So, I'm hoping that by the end of this episode, we don't have any of that confusion anymore. 46 00:04:49,300 --> 00:04:51,310 That's the purpose of today's episode. 47 00:04:51,610 --> 00:04:56,830 So, let's just get right into it and figure out how do we legally share other people's content. 48 00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:06,550 I think the first thing that you need to know and always keep in mind when it comes to most legal things, let alone copyright in particular, is that there's no 49 00:05:06,970 --> 00:05:08,590 perfect formula. 50 00:05:08,590 --> 00:05:15,850 So, I think - I remember being a young attorney and being thinking that the law was going to be a lot more straightforward than it was. 51 00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:19,090 And, I thought things would be very clear cut, right? 52 00:05:19,090 --> 00:05:21,610 Like, "Oh, Okay. One plus one equals two," and that'll be it. 53 00:05:21,610 --> 00:05:23,950 And so, there'll be a clear answer. 54 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:34,060 And little did I know, showing up to law school and pumpkin spice latte in hand, of course, that I was getting into an industry 55 00:05:34,060 --> 00:05:36,530 that was basically a series of factors. 56 00:05:36,530 --> 00:05:39,880 Like, everything in law school was like a factor test. 57 00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:48,140 And so, you would get these elements of a law and then they would be like, you know, five elements to larceny and then you would have to go through. 58 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:50,540 And it wasn't just like if you hit all five. 59 00:05:50,540 --> 00:05:52,290 It was always like a balance test. 60 00:05:52,300 --> 00:05:53,800 So, it's very hard. 61 00:05:53,800 --> 00:06:03,640 And I find that to be one of the more frustrating parts of my job because people come to me for clear cut answers, and I understand why you want clear cut answers, but they just don't exist for the 62 00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:06,220 most part in the legal profession. 63 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:09,540 And that is especially true when it comes to copyright. 64 00:06:09,550 --> 00:06:19,150 So, what we're going to go over today is kind of a like factor test of sorts that you're going to have to think through and think of the 65 00:06:19,150 --> 00:06:22,650 balance, you know, kind of the totality of the circumstances. 66 00:06:22,660 --> 00:06:29,490 And, it's something that you're always going to have to, unfortunately, evaluate on a case-by-case basis. 67 00:06:29,490 --> 00:06:34,400 So, you're not going to learn - typically speaking, you're not going to learn like, "Okay. 68 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:36,010 Every time I do this, it'll be totally fine. 69 00:06:36,010 --> 00:06:39,520 Every time I do this, it's not fine." That doesn't really exist in the law. 70 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:42,840 So, we're going to talk through, though, what these factors are. 71 00:06:42,840 --> 00:06:52,210 So that I'm hoping that after this episode, you're able to walk away with a working understanding of what the major ones are so that they're going to be some easy, like, knockouts, right? 72 00:06:52,210 --> 00:06:57,030 Like, this is definitely not okay or this definitely is okay because I understand some of the factors. 73 00:06:57,030 --> 00:07:01,180 But there are always going to be those cases in the middle, so we'll talk through it. 74 00:07:01,420 --> 00:07:04,620 Of course, if you have questions, you can always reach out to me. 75 00:07:04,630 --> 00:07:06,640 Let me know. Drop them in the comments. 76 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:07,770 You do all the things. 77 00:07:07,770 --> 00:07:10,930 But I think you'll have a better understanding after today. 78 00:07:11,260 --> 00:07:15,360 So, what kind of content falls under copyright to begin with? 79 00:07:15,360 --> 00:07:25,280 Because a lot of times people will contact me and ask me about copyright issues or they're like, "Someone's violating my copyright because they're using my course name," and it's like, "No. 80 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:30,150 That's a trademark." So, there are a certain like set of things that fall under copyright. 81 00:07:30,870 --> 00:07:35,910 So, some of the major ones, we're not going to list every single thing so this is not an exhaustive list. 82 00:07:35,910 --> 00:07:43,350 But some of the major things that fall under copyright law in America, meaning that they are protected by copyright and the U.S. 83 00:07:43,350 --> 00:07:48,930 copyright law, are literary works, like, first and foremost, written things. 84 00:07:48,930 --> 00:07:52,200 So, things like books, but even other written content. 85 00:07:52,710 --> 00:07:54,860 Music is covered by copyright. 86 00:07:54,860 --> 00:07:57,800 Lyrics of those music, of those songs. 87 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:03,240 Photographs and videos, sound recordings, and even architectural work, which I thought was really cool. 88 00:08:03,750 --> 00:08:13,320 So, obviously, in what we do in the online space and for most online coaches and creatives, this is typically covering the bulk of what we do, right? 89 00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:23,090 All of the stuff you're writing, all of these videos, all of the stuff you're posting on social media, the videos and audio inside of your courses. 90 00:08:23,090 --> 00:08:27,150 Like, just so much of what we do is actually covered by copyright. 91 00:08:27,180 --> 00:08:30,840 So, you might be thinking then what's the difference between that and trademarks ? 92 00:08:30,940 --> 00:08:35,870 Well, trademarks cover - there are design marks, word marks, and then sound marks as well. 93 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:45,240 But the main ones that apply to what we do under trademarks are the design and word marks, and design marks are the things like logos, symbols. 94 00:08:45,270 --> 00:08:47,340 So, like the Nike swoosh, for example. 95 00:08:47,340 --> 00:08:48,450 The Target bullseye. 96 00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:51,150 So, those kinds of things are covered by design marks. 97 00:08:51,150 --> 00:09:01,050 And then, word marks are things like covering, giving you a trademark for actual names, taglines, names of programs, names of businesses, slogans, all kinds of stuff like 98 00:09:01,050 --> 00:09:03,690 that. So, names of products. 99 00:09:03,690 --> 00:09:06,570 So, those kinds of things are covered by copyright. 100 00:09:06,570 --> 00:09:15,930 But the actual content that we're producing, like the written content, the blogs, the videos, the songs you might be making, that kind of stuff, that is all covered by copyright. 101 00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:20,340 So, who then owns the copyright when you create something? 102 00:09:20,340 --> 00:09:30,180 So, once you create an original work, meaning that you have created something that is not copying off of somebody else and you, quote, fix it in a, quote, tangible medium, those are all, 103 00:09:30,180 --> 00:09:40,140 like, super annoying legal terms, otherwise known as, like, you taking a photograph and then it saves to your phone or you writing a blog post and posting it to your website, or you writing 104 00:09:40,140 --> 00:09:45,000 an e-book and putting it on your site, or you recording a podcast episode and posting it. 105 00:09:45,570 --> 00:09:51,030 That is when you have now created something in which you own the copyright to it. 106 00:09:51,030 --> 00:09:53,550 You are the author. You are the owner of that copyright. 107 00:09:54,390 --> 00:10:01,620 You get inherent copyright rights in something when you create it, even without registering. 108 00:10:01,620 --> 00:10:05,070 So, a lot of people think that they don't have any rights unless they send it off to the U.S. 109 00:10:05,070 --> 00:10:06,170 Copyright Office. 110 00:10:06,180 --> 00:10:13,740 That is not true. You do have common law copyright rights in whatever you create, whatever original work you fix in a tangible medium. 111 00:10:13,740 --> 00:10:19,110 However, you get a ton of additional benefits by you sending it off to the U.S. 112 00:10:19,110 --> 00:10:21,360 Copyright Office and registering it. 113 00:10:21,390 --> 00:10:27,240 That is something you can either do yourself or something you could hire an intellectual property attorney to do for you. 114 00:10:27,270 --> 00:10:29,850 No, I don't do that. I don't offer any legal services. 115 00:10:30,030 --> 00:10:32,970 So, yeah, you can look into that if possible. 116 00:10:32,970 --> 00:10:38,190 But let's talk through the rest of today so that we have a better working understanding of what this all even means. 117 00:10:38,700 --> 00:10:42,310 How then can you use somebody else's work then? 118 00:10:42,330 --> 00:10:51,180 Okay. Now, we understand, like what even falls under a copyright so that you would understand, like what content you see from other people that they would have a copyright to. 119 00:10:51,690 --> 00:10:53,190 You then understand who owns it. 120 00:10:53,190 --> 00:11:00,510 They do if they've created an original work and they've fixed it in a tangible medium, meaning that they've put it, you know, out into the universe. 121 00:11:00,720 --> 00:11:03,840 And then, so how can we use it properly? 122 00:11:04,020 --> 00:11:05,460 So, there are a few ways. 123 00:11:05,490 --> 00:11:08,370 Obviously, the first and foremost that you can purchase it, right? 124 00:11:08,370 --> 00:11:11,440 That's how you can, quote-unquote, use somebody else's copyright. 125 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:20,970 Like, when you go to your local bookstore and you buy a book, the author of that book owns the copyright to that book, but you're allowed to use it, okay, read it 126 00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:22,950 because you purchased it. 127 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:31,490 That is permissible under the essential, like essentially like the license that they've given you when you've purchased it. 128 00:11:31,490 --> 00:11:36,410 But you only get to use it as they prescribe in their licensing agreement. 129 00:11:36,410 --> 00:11:42,870 Probably only for you, only for personal use, not for distribution, not for sharing, not for selling, not for reselling. 130 00:11:42,900 --> 00:11:45,870 So, there are usually a lot of limitations. 131 00:11:45,870 --> 00:11:49,320 Like, for example, I sell DIY Legal Templates. 132 00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:59,130 You can purchase those from my site and then when you download them, even though I'm the copyright owner of that, I'm giving you permission to use it for yourself in the way that I describe as 133 00:11:59,140 --> 00:12:04,830 essentially it's a limited license, meaning that you can use it and you can use it for your business and your website or whatever else. 134 00:12:04,830 --> 00:12:10,680 But you can't start sending it out to other people, or you couldn't download it and put it in your site and sell it for half price. 135 00:12:10,680 --> 00:12:19,790 Like, that's how - you know, I essentially give you the right or the license to use it but only in the way that I tell you is okay, which you're allowed to do when you own the copyright. 136 00:12:19,970 --> 00:12:26,440 So, obviously, purchase and then use through that limited license is one way, of course, that you can use somebody else's work. 137 00:12:26,450 --> 00:12:31,490 But then what do you do when you want to actually share it, which is probably the problem that you're running into? 138 00:12:31,520 --> 00:12:35,350 So, one way is that you get a license to use it in that way. 139 00:12:35,350 --> 00:12:42,980 So, you'll see a lot of times people will have, you know, they'll get a license to share certain sports teams logos and stuff like this. 140 00:12:42,980 --> 00:12:50,030 And like, you know, people on Etsy will make stuff with Disney stuff, but they probably aren't even doing the legitimate steps. 141 00:12:50,030 --> 00:12:51,800 But that's what that would look like, right? 142 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:57,590 That's how they should go about it, is to get some sort of license to distribute and to share. 143 00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:00,060 You can also get permission, obviously. 144 00:13:00,060 --> 00:13:07,200 Like, permission's always the best thing that you can get from an author, is that you reach out, you say, "Hey, I'm teaching this course. 145 00:13:07,200 --> 00:13:11,390 Is it okay if I reference this part?" That would be in an ideal scenario. 146 00:13:11,390 --> 00:13:13,040 That's always the best option. 147 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:20,530 But it's also really impractical because you're probably not going to hear back from, like, Oprah about whether it's okay to use her thing. 148 00:13:20,540 --> 00:13:29,870 But you could reach out to Oprah's publisher, and a lot of times if it's a book, for example, a lot of times on the inside jacket of a book, it'll actually tell you who to contact and to ask 149 00:13:29,870 --> 00:13:33,650 about re-sharing and distributing this content. 150 00:13:33,650 --> 00:13:35,090 So, you can always try that. 151 00:13:35,090 --> 00:13:37,880 But again, not super practical. 152 00:13:37,880 --> 00:13:47,630 And, we kind of want you to have a system down so that, like, on the fly as you're creating a course or you're teaching something, or a topic comes up with a client and they're 153 00:13:47,630 --> 00:13:56,270 like, they're confused about something or want to learn more about an area and you want to share resource with them, it's not going to be practical for you to reach out to other people. 154 00:13:56,270 --> 00:14:02,360 You're instead going to need to know, like, how do I decide whether or not I can share this with that person? 155 00:14:06,860 --> 00:14:11,490 Have you ever felt lost about where to begin with the legal side of protecting your online business? 156 00:14:11,510 --> 00:14:15,020 Some people say you can just wing it at the beginning and get officially set up later. 157 00:14:15,650 --> 00:14:17,670 Not a good idea, by the way. 158 00:14:17,670 --> 00:14:27,380 Whether you're afraid to even start working with clients because you don't want to do something wrong legally and then get in trouble or your business is growing and you sort of forgot to take care of the legal 159 00:14:27,380 --> 00:14:29,160 pieces, I've got you. 160 00:14:29,180 --> 00:14:38,990 I don't want you to live in fear of the internet police coming after you and your business, but you do have to do certain things and get certain things in place in order to legally and safely run your business 161 00:14:38,990 --> 00:14:46,100 online. As much as it just feels like an unregulated Wild Wild West online, that is very much not the case. 162 00:14:46,100 --> 00:14:51,380 As an attorney-turned entrepreneur and former corporate litigator, I can assure you that there are rules. 163 00:14:51,380 --> 00:14:56,390 There are real steps that everybody who runs or starts an online business needs to take. 164 00:14:56,660 --> 00:14:58,490 And, you're not behind at all. 165 00:14:58,490 --> 00:15:00,900 We can get you set up and following the rules right away. 166 00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:02,750 In fact, we can even do it today. 167 00:15:02,780 --> 00:15:08,000 I want to teach you the five very simple steps to take to legally protect and grow your online business. 168 00:15:08,030 --> 00:15:17,240 You don't need an MBA to be a successful entrepreneur and stay out of legal hot water, but you do need to dot your legal i's and cross your t's in a few key areas that can't be skipped. 169 00:15:17,270 --> 00:15:23,720 That's exactly what I'll teach you in my free one-hour legal workshop called Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business. 170 00:15:23,750 --> 00:15:32,030 Just head to mylegalworkshop.com, drop in your email address, pick the time, and I'll send you a link to watch the workshop video whenever you have time. 171 00:15:32,300 --> 00:15:36,560 This is the best place to begin if you're just getting started legally legitimizing your business. 172 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:43,250 So, head on over to mylegalworkshop.com and sign up to watch Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business now. 173 00:15:47,580 --> 00:15:57,240 The other way that you can share somebody else's work, and the thing that we're going to spend the rest of our time together today talking about, is that you can use somebody else's work if 174 00:15:57,270 --> 00:16:02,110 your use falls under an exception like fair use. 175 00:16:02,110 --> 00:16:07,800 So, it would fall under an exception to the copyright law, which would say that you cannot use somebody else's work. 176 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:17,730 You can't distribute, you can't share, you can't reference, you can't do all of these things except if you fall under this fair use exception, which would then allow you 177 00:16:17,730 --> 00:16:21,180 to share somebody else's work legally. 178 00:16:21,330 --> 00:16:30,180 So, that's what we're going to spend the rest of our time today talking through, because this, in particular, like I was talking about earlier, is a balance test. 179 00:16:30,450 --> 00:16:40,350 This is a multifactorial thing where we have a lot of factors to this about what would make it okay to fall under the fair use exception and what makes it that you do fall under the 180 00:16:40,350 --> 00:16:42,640 fair use exception, what would definitely not. 181 00:16:42,660 --> 00:16:45,510 So, we're going to go over those step by step by step. 182 00:16:45,750 --> 00:16:46,940 Let's do it. Okay. 183 00:16:46,940 --> 00:16:49,050 So, how do you know if you qualify for fair use? 184 00:16:49,050 --> 00:16:54,360 So, you have to evaluate the fair use factors, and I'm going to go over each of these today. 185 00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:58,170 I'm also going to link to a guide in the description below that's from the U.S. 186 00:16:58,170 --> 00:17:02,020 Copyright Office. It's a much more comprehensive guide so that you can read through it. 187 00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:11,250 I'm kind of giving you the cliff notes summary version of that today, but I am going to link to that below, and just remembering that there is no perfect formula or guarantee. 188 00:17:11,250 --> 00:17:15,200 So, you could think that you hit all of these factors and you think like, "Oh, for sure. 189 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:18,840 I qualify under all these factors." And then, a court decides that you don't, right? 190 00:17:19,770 --> 00:17:21,170 Welcome to being a lawyer. 191 00:17:21,180 --> 00:17:26,910 I used to show up for court all the time being like, "We got this man in the shade and we're, like, totally fine." And then, we get there. 192 00:17:26,910 --> 00:17:32,760 I was like, "I did not expect that." So, it's totally possible, but we're going to do our best. 193 00:17:33,330 --> 00:17:43,020 You know, courts consider these factors, and they also look at the entire circumstances of what you're doing, how you were re-using it, what kind of work you 194 00:17:43,140 --> 00:17:46,570 were using, all that kind of stuff, to see if it's okay. 195 00:17:46,590 --> 00:17:55,470 So, unfortunately, people don't really know whether or not their use of somebody else's work is going to be okay until they get sued and a court decides . 196 00:17:56,670 --> 00:18:06,450 I think you put yourself in a really good position, and you would also put yourself in a good position to just talk to somebody if they ever contacted you and said, "Hey, I don't like how you're using 197 00:18:06,450 --> 00:18:09,400 my work," or something like that, or they accused you of something. 198 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:19,170 I think you would be able to show them like, "Hey, I went through all this to make sure I was using it in a best way possible and things would hopefully be okay for you," but it's just 199 00:18:19,170 --> 00:18:20,910 very convoluted. 200 00:18:21,210 --> 00:18:25,380 Okay. So, what are the factors then that U.S. 201 00:18:25,380 --> 00:18:33,750 Copyright Law looks to in deciding whether or not your use of somebody else's content qualifies under the fair use exception? 202 00:18:34,230 --> 00:18:41,860 The first is whether or not you're using the other person's content in a commercial versus an educational manner. 203 00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:48,790 So, when we say commercial, we mean you're selling it or you're using it in something that you are selling. 204 00:18:48,810 --> 00:18:58,110 So, my ears always perk up when somebody tells me that they want to use somebody else's content or book or videos or whatever inside of their course, for example, 205 00:18:58,860 --> 00:19:00,150 and it's a paid course. 206 00:19:00,420 --> 00:19:07,160 So, that's a little concerning to me because then you're kind of building your course off the back of somebody else's copyrighted work. 207 00:19:07,170 --> 00:19:09,390 So, that's a little concerning. 208 00:19:09,390 --> 00:19:18,030 It's not necessarily - again, none of these factors in and of themselves are necessarily good or bad or, like, totally knock you out or totally allow you. 209 00:19:18,120 --> 00:19:22,590 It's just something to consider when we're looking at the rest of the factors that we're going to talk about today. 210 00:19:22,740 --> 00:19:27,810 But we want to make sure that we are putting our own unique spin. 211 00:19:27,810 --> 00:19:37,080 So, you should essentially be coming up with your own theories or your own way of presenting things, your own methodology, so that you're not relying on the ones that are created by other 212 00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:40,050 people. So, of course, we can absorb and learn. 213 00:19:40,050 --> 00:19:41,610 We can properly reference. 214 00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:44,300 We can differentiate ourselves too, right? 215 00:19:44,310 --> 00:19:54,080 So, you can read about somebody else's theory and then think, like, this -this is actually why I don't agree with this, why I don't think - this is what I think they have wrong, or what I like to do differently. 216 00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:56,640 Like, what works differently for me and what works differently for my customers? 217 00:19:57,450 --> 00:20:04,740 So, that's a great way where it's like, of course, you're inspired by something you've taken in some information, but you're also doing it differently. 218 00:20:04,890 --> 00:20:10,680 So, we're not copying, we're not doing what other people are doing and just trying to, like, change a couple words. 219 00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:11,760 That's plagiarism. 220 00:20:11,770 --> 00:20:13,530 That's just straight up plagiarism. 221 00:20:13,530 --> 00:20:16,380 That's copyright theft, intellectual property theft, all kinds of stuff. 222 00:20:16,410 --> 00:20:17,880 That's not what we're doing here. 223 00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:22,170 We are doing our own thing, doing it on our own terms. 224 00:20:22,170 --> 00:20:31,950 That's how we're doing it. So, when in doubt, you need permission or you need to have a license to use it in a certain way, or you need to fall under the fair use 225 00:20:32,220 --> 00:20:34,440 exception or some other exception under U.S. 226 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:38,680 Copyright Law that allows you to use other people's content legally. 227 00:20:38,700 --> 00:20:48,530 So, I hope that after today, you now feel more comfortable with some of the factors and you feel like you can kind of go through and see, like, which ones would definitely knock out 228 00:20:48,530 --> 00:20:50,500 your use of somebody else's content. 229 00:20:50,500 --> 00:21:00,320 But I always say, you know, so many of my customers will ask me about like sharing content and resources and all these things, and I'm like, you know, it's actually really helpful just to share 230 00:21:00,350 --> 00:21:10,280 resources. Like, you'd be surprised how much people appreciate it when you put together a PDF of your favorite resources and you just link to it, so you're not presenting the resources as 231 00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:11,380 if they're your own. 232 00:21:11,390 --> 00:21:15,390 You're not copying and pasting the content in your PDF. 233 00:21:15,390 --> 00:21:21,040 You're linking to it and sending people or creating a page on your website or whatever it is however you want to do it. 234 00:21:21,050 --> 00:21:24,500 But people find that really, really valuable because it is valuable. 235 00:21:24,500 --> 00:21:30,740 You're saving people a lot of time and money and energy and effort by putting together these resources for them. 236 00:21:30,740 --> 00:21:40,730 So, don't be afraid to offer your customers, you know, a link and a resource and kind of a compilation of those resources as a way 237 00:21:40,730 --> 00:21:44,570 of pointing them back to the original author, the original creator of that work. 238 00:21:45,740 --> 00:21:55,700 And, I always say to that whenever you're leading a course or you're teaching some sort of program, instead of you teaching from a book and then basically giving all the content 239 00:21:55,700 --> 00:22:04,750 away, do it more like they did in college and tell people when they purchase the program that they have to go purchase this book, or better yet, send it to them as a client gift. 240 00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:06,050 So, you can include. 241 00:22:06,050 --> 00:22:15,620 Like, if you're - a lot of what you're going to talk about is in this one book or it's kind of like a prerequisite that somebody read something before they would join your course or something like that because you're going to 242 00:22:15,860 --> 00:22:18,600 talk about it a lot, then have them purchase it. 243 00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:26,270 Support the author, support the original creator of the work, and if you can, please send them to independent bookstores or small companies to do so. 244 00:22:26,270 --> 00:22:31,250 But, you know, it's really, I think, like it's much easier than we make it. 245 00:22:31,250 --> 00:22:36,590 And, I see a lot of people just get hung up on this and they hold back on creating courses and all that kind of stuff. 246 00:22:36,740 --> 00:22:46,640 The very last thing I do want to say is that if you're getting too hung up on whether so much of your content is taken from other people, it might be an invitation for you to step 247 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:56,320 back and make sure that you have something original to offer here, like something that you're not just taking from other people, like a buffet and putting 248 00:22:56,660 --> 00:22:58,980 it together and repackaging it as your own course. 249 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:07,660 But sometimes I think why people get freaked out about this is because they haven't really taken the time to develop their own unique strategy or products. 250 00:23:07,660 --> 00:23:15,500 If you feel confident, like when I sat down and wrote my legal templates or when I've created my business, I felt confident that this all came from me. 251 00:23:15,770 --> 00:23:17,780 That also really helped. 252 00:23:17,780 --> 00:23:23,690 And I feel like what part of what helps in that was that I didn't look at what other people were doing. 253 00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:32,660 So, there's a difference between getting educated and having to go through schooling or certification programs, reading books, whatever, to booster your expertise 254 00:23:33,650 --> 00:23:39,920 and then observing and consuming a lot of the peers in this industry. 255 00:23:40,370 --> 00:23:49,970 If you are doing the latter, if you are doing a lot of consuming and a lot of following your peers and all the people who you see on Instagram are all people who do what you do and, 256 00:23:49,970 --> 00:23:59,960 like, you know, you consider that research or something like this, I would really encourage you to turn all that off to get rid of it, to go back to episode one of my On Your Terms podcast and 257 00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:04,390 listen to how I talk about how this community over competition B.S. 258 00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:06,610 that has been perpetuated has made you. 259 00:24:06,620 --> 00:24:11,890 It's not anything to do, by the way, just spoiler alert, it has nothing to do with being supportive of people who do what you do. 260 00:24:11,900 --> 00:24:18,020 You should be super supportive and nice and just not care about it at all because there's room for all of us. 261 00:24:18,050 --> 00:24:24,500 That whole episode is talking to you about just not consuming all of their stuff and following them. 262 00:24:24,500 --> 00:24:34,190 Because what I see so often is that then those are the people who get stuck in this loop of like, "Is my content too close to them?" "Am I allowed to share about this because I might have gotten inspired by this 263 00:24:34,190 --> 00:24:39,230 person?" It's like, you know, what would be easier if you just weren't inspired by them in the first place. 264 00:24:39,230 --> 00:24:48,680 So, again, there's a difference between the educational component and going to experts people outside this field, to school, to whatever, versus consuming all this 265 00:24:48,860 --> 00:24:53,840 content from your peers in the industry and from on social media and all of that. 266 00:24:54,050 --> 00:25:00,860 I would really encourage you to put on some blinders, put your head down, and build your own business on your terms. 267 00:25:00,860 --> 00:25:04,010 So, I feel like that's a really good way to wrap up. 268 00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:07,880 Thank you so much for watching this episode today, for listening to this episode today. 269 00:25:08,270 --> 00:25:10,100 I will drop some links below. 270 00:25:10,370 --> 00:25:16,100 I have a blog post about how to legally share content that I wrote a few years ago that has a lot of good resources in it. 271 00:25:16,100 --> 00:25:17,510 I'm going to link to that below. 272 00:25:17,630 --> 00:25:21,140 I'm also going to share the Copyrights Basics, a PDF that comes from the U.S. 273 00:25:21,140 --> 00:25:22,150 Copyright Office. 274 00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:31,970 That is a great thing to have on-hand for your business to just better understand copyrights in general, like when to register your own work, what it means to register, how you go about 275 00:25:31,970 --> 00:25:35,480 it, how to share other people's content under the fair use exception, all of that. 276 00:25:36,010 --> 00:25:40,760 And last but not least, I will also link below to the fair use guide that also comes from the U.S. 277 00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:50,310 Copyright Office. I would definitely check that out if you want to learn more about how to fall under the fair use exception and legally share other people's content. 278 00:25:50,310 --> 00:25:53,870 So, thank you so much for listening to this episode of On Your Terms. 279 00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:55,320 I can't wait to see you next week. 280 00:25:58,420 --> 00:26:01,190 Thanks so much for listening to the On Your Terms Podcast. 281 00:26:01,210 --> 00:26:05,860 Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcast. 282 00:26:05,890 --> 00:26:12,880 You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links and more at samvanderwielen.com/podcast. 283 00:26:12,910 --> 00:26:20,170 You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal workshop, Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow your Online Business, at samvanderwielen.com. 284 00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:27,400 And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram, @samvanderwielen, and send me a DM to say hi. 285 00:26:37,350 --> 00:26:44,080 Just remember that although I am a attorney, I am not your attorney and I am not offering you legal advice in today's episode. 286 00:26:44,100 --> 00:26:48,890 This episode and all of my episodes are informational and educational only. 287 00:26:48,890 --> 00:26:53,150 It is not a substitute for seeking out your own advice from your own lawyer. 288 00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:55,980 And, please keep in mind that I can't offer you legal advice. 289 00:26:55,980 --> 00:27:00,090 I don't ever offer any legal services, but I think I offer some pretty good information. © 290 00:27:00,140 --> 00:27:00,770 2022 Sam Vander Wielen LLC | All Rights Reserved | Any use of this intellectual property owned by Sam Vander Wielen LLC may not be used in connection with the sale or distribution of any content (free or paid, written or verbal), product, 291 00:27:00,770 --> 00:27:00,990 and/or service by you without prior written consent from Sam Vander Wielen LLC.