We all want to create and share content respectfully and properly online. But sometimes it’s hard to know where to draw the line between inspiration and imitation. Let’s go over some of the basics of copyright law, what it is, what content falls under that category, and how you can use other peoples’ content, legally. I also discuss the fair use exception, what it is, and what content falls under it.

In this episode, you'll hear…

1. 04:56 - Understanding the gray areas of copyright law
2. 07:11 - What content falls under copyright law
3. 10:38 - How you can use someone else’s work legally
4. 15:48 - Fair use laws and how to use them
5. 22:35 - Making sure you have something original to say

RESOURCES:

1. How to Legally Share Content [blog post] - https://www.samvanderwielen.com/how-to-legally-share-content/
2. Copyright Basics PDF from US Copyright Office - https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf
3. Fair Use Guide - https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/
4. Episode 1. Community Over Competition is BS: Tips to Navigate Your Competition in a Healthier Way

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DISCLAIMER: Although Sam is an attorney she doesn’t practice law and can’t give you legal advice. All episodes of On Your Terms® are educational and informational only. The information discussed here isn’t legal advice and isn’t intended to be. The info you hear here isn’t a substitute for seeking legal advice from your own attorney.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Legal Workshop

Do you feel lost thinking about how to legally protect your online business? Head to mylegalworkshop.com to sign-up for immediate access to my free 1-hour legal workshop, 5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow your Online Business.

Legal Workshop

Hey, hey, hey. And welcome to another episode of On Your Terms.

I'm your host, Sam Vander Wielen, an attorney-turned entrepreneur who helps coaches, courts creators, and online service providers legally protect and grow

Templates and my Ultimate Bundle program.

So, I am so excited to have t his episode today.

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

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

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

how, when it's too close to the line of copying other people's content, and all that kind of stuff.

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

and what kind of content it falls, what falls under that category.

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.

Plus, we talk in depth about the fair use exception.

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

So, I go over all of those factors today, and I hope that you're going to love this episode.

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

requested, something I did a survey about, you might remember, but you are getting that in just a couple of days.

It's a free legal email template.

I'm so excited to share it with you.

You'll want to keep your eyes peeled for that.

And, other than that, I just want to get into it and help you learn how to legally share other people's content.

So, let's do it. So, you know how they always say in marketing that you should market to

people about what they want but then teach them what they really need.

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

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

similar program." And I always say, like, "Of course, we need to handle copyrights.

Yes. Don't get me wrong.

But we also need to make sure that you're not the copycat by accident."

Not necessarily in that case, not like the one that you're worried about.

I just kind of like to take care of the stuff in our own house before we go around criticizing everybody else's, right.

Because so often online, I think that people are accidentally copying other people, or accidentally, quote-unquote, being inspired by other people, and

it's a little too close for comfort.

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.

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

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

courses and programs with your clients.

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

I want to send it to my clients." So, this episode is going to be super helpful in working through some of those issues.

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,

leads to two major problems.

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

but it's illegal use of that content.

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

out about accidentally copying somebody else that you're like.

"Oh, I'm not. I'm just not going to share this." But, in reality it would actually be just fine.

So, I'm hoping that by the end of this episode, we don't have any of that confusion anymore.

That's the purpose of today's episode.

So, let's just get right into it and figure out how do we legally share other people's content.

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

perfect formula.

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.

And, I thought things would be very clear cut, right?

Like, "Oh, Okay. One plus one equals two," and that'll be it.

And so, there'll be a clear answer.

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

that was basically a series of factors.

Like, everything in law school was like a factor test.

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.

And it wasn't just like if you hit all five.

It was always like a balance test.

So, it's very hard.

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

most part in the legal profession.

And that is especially true when it comes to copyright.

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

balance, you know, kind of the totality of the circumstances.

And, it's something that you're always going to have to, unfortunately, evaluate on a case-by-case basis.

So, you're not going to learn - typically speaking, you're not going to learn like, "Okay.

Every time I do this, it'll be totally fine.

Every time I do this, it's not fine." That doesn't really exist in the law.

So, we're going to talk through, though, what these factors are.

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

Like, this is definitely not okay or this definitely is okay because I understand some of the factors.

But there are always going to be those cases in the middle, so we'll talk through it.

Of course, if you have questions, you can always reach out to me.

Let me know. Drop them in the comments.

You do all the things.

But I think you'll have a better understanding after today.

So, what kind of content falls under copyright to begin with?

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

That's a trademark." So, there are a certain like set of things that fall under copyright.

So, some of the major ones, we're not going to list every single thing so this is not an exhaustive list.

But some of the major things that fall under copyright law in America, meaning that they are protected by copyright and the U.S.

copyright law, are literary works, like, first and foremost, written things.

So, things like books, but even other written content.

Music is covered by copyright.

Lyrics of those music, of those songs.

Photographs and videos, sound recordings, and even architectural work, which I thought was really cool.

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?

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.

Like, just so much of what we do is actually covered by copyright.

So, you might be thinking then what's the difference between that and trademarks ?

Well, trademarks cover - there are design marks, word marks, and then sound marks as well.

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.

So, like the Nike swoosh, for example.

The Target bullseye.

So, those kinds of things are covered by design marks.

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

that. So, names of products.

So, those kinds of things are covered by copyright.

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

So, who then owns the copyright when you create something?

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,

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

an e-book and putting it on your site, or you recording a podcast episode and posting it.

That is when you have now created something in which you own the copyright to it.

You are the author. You are the owner of that copyright.

You get inherent copyright rights in something when you create it, even without registering.

So, a lot of people think that they don't have any rights unless they send it off to the U.S.

Copyright Office.

That is not true. You do have common law copyright rights in whatever you create, whatever original work you fix in a tangible medium.

However, you get a ton of additional benefits by you sending it off to the U.S.

Copyright Office and registering it.

That is something you can either do yourself or something you could hire an intellectual property attorney to do for you.

No, I don't do that. I don't offer any legal services.

So, yeah, you can look into that if possible.

But let's talk through the rest of today so that we have a better working understanding of what this all even means.

How then can you use somebody else's work then?

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

You then understand who owns it.

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.

And then, so how can we use it properly?

So, there are a few ways.

Obviously, the first and foremost that you can purchase it, right?

That's how you can, quote-unquote, use somebody else's copyright.

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

because you purchased it.

That is permissible under the essential, like essentially like the license that they've given you when you've purchased it.

But you only get to use it as they prescribe in their licensing agreement.

Probably only for you, only for personal use, not for distribution, not for sharing, not for selling, not for reselling.

So, there are usually a lot of limitations.

Like, for example, I sell DIY Legal Templates.

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

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.

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.

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

So, obviously, purchase and then use through that limited license is one way, of course, that you can use somebody else's work.

But then what do you do when you want to actually share it, which is probably the problem that you're running into?

So, one way is that you get a license to use it in that way.

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.

And like, you know, people on Etsy will make stuff with Disney stuff, but they probably aren't even doing the legitimate steps.

But that's what that would look like, right?

That's how they should go about it, is to get some sort of license to distribute and to share.

You can also get permission, obviously.

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.

Is it okay if I reference this part?" That would be in an ideal scenario.

That's always the best option.

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.

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

about re-sharing and distributing this content.

So, you can always try that.

But again, not super practical.

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

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

You're instead going to need to know, like, how do I decide whether or not I can share this with that person?

Have you ever felt lost about where to begin with the legal side of protecting your online business?

Some people say you can just wing it at the beginning and get officially set up later.

Not a good idea, by the way.

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

pieces, I've got you.

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

online. As much as it just feels like an unregulated Wild Wild West online, that is very much not the case.

As an attorney-turned entrepreneur and former corporate litigator, I can assure you that there are rules.

There are real steps that everybody who runs or starts an online business needs to take.

And, you're not behind at all.

We can get you set up and following the rules right away.

In fact, we can even do it today.

I want to teach you the five very simple steps to take to legally protect and grow your online business.

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

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.

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.

This is the best place to begin if you're just getting started legally legitimizing your business.

So, head on over to mylegalworkshop.com and sign up to watch Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business now.

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

your use falls under an exception like fair use.

So, it would fall under an exception to the copyright law, which would say that you cannot use somebody else's work.

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

to share somebody else's work legally.

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

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

fair use exception, what would definitely not.

So, we're going to go over those step by step by step.

Let's do it. Okay.

So, how do you know if you qualify for fair use?

So, you have to evaluate the fair use factors, and I'm going to go over each of these today.

I'm also going to link to a guide in the description below that's from the U.S.

Copyright Office. It's a much more comprehensive guide so that you can read through it.

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

So, you could think that you hit all of these factors and you think like, "Oh, for sure.

I qualify under all these factors." And then, a court decides that you don't, right?

Welcome to being a lawyer.

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.

I was like, "I did not expect that." So, it's totally possible, but we're going to do our best.

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

were using, all that kind of stuff, to see if it's okay.

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

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

my work," or something like that, or they accused you of something.

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

very convoluted.

Okay. So, what are the factors then that U.S.

Copyright Law looks to in deciding whether or not your use of somebody else's content qualifies under the fair use exception?

The first is whether or not you're using the other person's content in a commercial versus an educational manner.

So, when we say commercial, we mean you're selling it or you're using it in something that you are selling.

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

and it's a paid course.

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.

So, that's a little concerning.

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.

It's just something to consider when we're looking at the rest of the factors that we're going to talk about today.

But we want to make sure that we are putting our own unique spin.

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

people. So, of course, we can absorb and learn.

We can properly reference.

We can differentiate ourselves too, right?

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

Like, what works differently for me and what works differently for my customers?

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.

So, we're not copying, we're not doing what other people are doing and just trying to, like, change a couple words.

That's plagiarism.

That's just straight up plagiarism.

That's copyright theft, intellectual property theft, all kinds of stuff.

That's not what we're doing here.

We are doing our own thing, doing it on our own terms.

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

exception or some other exception under U.S.

Copyright Law that allows you to use other people's content legally.

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

your use of somebody else's content.

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

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

if they're your own.

You're not copying and pasting the content in your PDF.

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.

But people find that really, really valuable because it is valuable.

You're saving people a lot of time and money and energy and effort by putting together these resources for them.

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

of pointing them back to the original author, the original creator of that work.

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

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

So, you can include.

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

talk about it a lot, then have them purchase it.

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.

But, you know, it's really, I think, like it's much easier than we make it.

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.

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

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

it together and repackaging it as your own course.

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.

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.

That also really helped.

And I feel like what part of what helps in that was that I didn't look at what other people were doing.

So, there's a difference between getting educated and having to go through schooling or certification programs, reading books, whatever, to booster your

and then observing and consuming a lot of the peers in this industry.

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

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

listen to how I talk about how this community over competition B.S.

that has been perpetuated has made you.

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.

You should be super supportive and nice and just not care about it at all because there's room for all of us.

That whole episode is talking to you about just not consuming all of their stuff and following them.

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

person?" It's like, you know, what would be easier if you just weren't inspired by them in the first place.

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

content from your peers in the industry and from on social media and all of that.

I would really encourage you to put on some blinders, put your head down, and build your own business on your terms.

So, I feel like that's a really good way to wrap up.

Thank you so much for watching this episode today, for listening to this episode today.

I will drop some links below.

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.

I'm going to link to that below.

I'm also going to share the Copyrights Basics, a PDF that comes from the U.S.

Copyright Office.

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

it, how to share other people's content under the fair use exception, all of that.

And last but not least, I will also link below to the fair use guide that also comes from the U.S.

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

So, thank you so much for listening to this episode of On Your Terms.

I can't wait to see you next week.

Thanks so much for listening to the On Your Terms Podcast.

Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcast.

You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links and more at samvanderwielen.com/podcast.

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

And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram, @samvanderwielen, and send me a DM to say hi.

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.

This episode and all of my episodes are informational and educational only.

It is not a substitute for seeking out your own advice from your own lawyer.

And, please keep in mind that I can't offer you legal advice.

I don't ever offer any legal services, but I think I offer some pretty good information.

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