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Understanding Information Sources

Anyone involved with intranet development and management knows that information comes from any number of sources. It can come from publicly available Web sites and print publications, internal knowledge experts, or information subscriptions. Most, if not all, information that comes from a third party is protected by copyright. In order to prevent copyright infringement, it's good to know where your content comes from and what you're allowed to do with it:

Public Domain and Creative Commons Licenses
The public domain, as defined in Wikipedia, "comprises the body of knowledge and innovation (especially creative works such as writing, art, music, and inventions) in relation to which no person or other legal entity can establish or maintain proprietary interests." This basically means that the right of ownership of belongs to the public at large, and anyone may make use of this material.

There's also a movement in the content world similar to that of open source in software. Creative Commons (CC), a non-profit organization, aims "to build a layer of reasonable, flexible copyright in the face of increasingly restrictive default rules." The CC Web site allows copyright holders to grant some of the rights to their works (while retaining certain other rights) — the written word, computer graphics, photography, music, films — to the public in the spirit of public domain or open content licensing terms. By using a CC license, the creator of a work maintains copyright while allowing others to copy and distribute the works. However, certain conditions can still be applied to works using CC licenses. If no conditions are applied by the creator, it's considered public domain.

Developed Internally (Internal Knowledge Assets)
Internal knowledge assets (IKAs) are developed in-house and the copyright belongs to the organization. And as the copyright holder, the organization can do what it wants with the content: post it on their intranet, print it in hard copy format, or burn it onto CD-ROM. But IKAs are sometimes developed with heavy use of external information sources. Intranet owners are responsible for determining whether the copyrighted material used in the development of IKAs is plagiarism disguised as research.

Publicly Available Content
While the Internet has broken down the geographic barriers concerning distribution of content, it doesn't give you permission to duplicate this content internally. Any original material obtained from a third party — whether on a Web site, printed publication, or audio recording — is copyrighted. And reproduction of this material without the copyright holder's consent can be construed as a willful violation of copyright.

In most cases, linking directly to an external article on the copyright holder's Web site is perfectly fine (unless otherwise specified) since there's no duplication or retransmission of content. But copying and saving the article on an intranet for internal use is clear infringement. If you're unsure about whether it's legal to post a certain piece of content on your intranet, always err on the side of caution and don't use it — at least not until you can obtain proper permission from the copyright holders.

Content Vendor Subscriptions There are many third-party information vendors who provide content by paid subscription. Most vendors offer these subscriptions based on site licenses or per subscription. Every vendor's licensing agreement is going to be different, but in general terms, a site license usually allows the subscriber to use, reproduce, and distribute the content for one site regardless of how many employees are at that site.

Per subscription licenses, on the other hand, are based on individual usage of the content, similar to that of software seat licenses. Many per-subscription licenses don't allow the content to be posted on an intranet unless additional licenses are purchased. Even though the physical content exists as a single copy, it will be retransmitted across the entire company where every employee is a potential user.

Subscription license agreements vary from vendor to vendor, and many do offer pricing plans for both site licenses as well as per-seat licenses to accommodate different company needs. Regardless of the license chosen, it's crucial that subscribers fully understand the terms of the agreement before they use this material on their intranet.

Unconventional Means
The legalities of using information gathered through "unconventional means" such as intelligence — real cloak-and-dagger stuff — is not always easy to define. Sometimes a very fine line separates legal business intelligence activities from unlawful industrial espionage. The issue of using intelligence to gather information will be the topic of an upcoming Intranet Journal article.

Closing Thoughts

Copyright isn't something that should be taken lightly. Even good faith mistakes can be punishable by the law — a violation is a still a violation. You should always make it a point to fully understand the copyrights associated with the information you gather from publicly available resources such as the Internet. And take the time to read the license agreements for any content subscriptions you may have. Never post something first and ask questions later. If you don't know whether you can use a piece of copyrighted content or don't understand a condition in a license agreement, consult with a corporate lawyer or copyright attorney — or simply ask the copyright holder for permission to use their content. Nothing is lost by asking.

In future installments of this series on the legalities of content use, I'll be discussing issues surrounding the principle of fair use and the legal implications of using material gained from intelligence activities.

Paul Chin is an IT consultant and a freelance writer. Previously, Paul worked as an intranet and content management specialist in the aerospace and competitive intelligence industries.

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