Copyright

In Australia, when you create your own work, you create the copyright at the same time. Copyright protection is automatically generated and it always protects the original work of creators. The copyright owners has various rights like change their work and publish on the internet. In general, the ‘creator’ or ‘maker’ of the work is the copyright owner. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions. For instance, the creator is an employee, belongs to a community, is a freelancer, the government control and create the work. The duration of copyright is the lifetime of the creator plus 70 years. The information from the internet doesn’t mean that we can use it without a permission. Usually you just need to get a verbal permission to use the source. Short words, names, titles, slogans or phrases are not protected by copyright.Copyright also do not the actual idea, fact, style or technique itself. So generally, facts and ideas are free to use. If you want people to use your original work, you can get your own creative commons license. To clarify your blog when someone leaves a comments, you can add a creative commons license to your blog comments page. You need to be more careful about providing a link to other blog or website. Although it does not infringe copyright owners, it is important to find out whether the blog or the website infringe the copyright. You can use another blogger’s image only when the copyright duration is expired and the work belongs to ‘public domain’, you get the owner’s permission, there is sufficient acknowledgement, the image is ‘clip art’. In Australia, there is no exception for ‘fair use’. It is just for the purpose of research and study, criticism or review, parody or satire and reporting news. If you cannot find a creative commons license on the work you want to use in your blog, collecting societies may help you arrange a license to reproduce or use the works on your blog.

Moral Rights

When you get the permission to use someone ‘s work, you should also be aware of not changing the work or being derogating about the work.

Trade marks

A trade mark is a sign of the trader or service provider of goods and service. there are two types of trade marks, registered trade marks and common law trade marks. A person who has a trade mark in Australia can be able stop others form using the same or a similar one.

Defamation

Consider about your words when you are venting and make sure that they are not defamatory.

Right of Publicity

There is no ‘right of publicity’ in Australia. If you use someone else’s work without a permission in Australia, they may stop using their name, image and so on. They can do this by relying on the law of defamation.