GCSE PSHE / Citizenship / Computing: Copyright and Ownership

EMMA-LOUISE: If you saw someone take something from a shop without paying, would you call that theft?

What if you saw someone streaming a film without paying? They’re not actually taking anything, they're just watching a film, so you might argue that's alright.

But if someone copied your homework without permission, you’d probably be annoyed. It's your work, it belongs to you so that's only fair, right?

Theft is about more than what you can see in a shop. The phrase ‘intellectual property’, or IP, refers to the non-physical property that people have created, so music, or writing, or films. And while the internet enables creators access to a global audience, it also makes it easier for their work to get ripped off.

I’ve invited Sanah Ahsan to talk to me about these issues because she faces these concerns in her work every day.

So Sanah, what kind of work do you do?

SANAH: I'm a psychologist and I work in activism. I'm a reporter and a spoken word poet.

EMMA-LOUISE: Wow. So, with your spoken word stuff, does that cause any issues?

SANAH: Yeah. I think when you're sharing anything personal or creative material online, it's important to consider the ways that it makes you vulnerable. And the idea of someone taking something so emotionally bound up in my life and passing it off as their own, is quite heart-breaking really.

EMMA-LOUISE: But ideally, don't you want people to share your work? Why do you feel the need to protect it online?

SANAH: I definitely do want people to share my work. I think social media offers a platform that's amazing to reach lots of people. But because of that potential of people lifting that material, it's really important that I take certain actions to keep it safe. It's really important that people understand that creativity and creative expression can be a way of earning a living and be a full time career for people, where that might be their only source of income. And actually, taking their creative property, their intellectual property and passing it off as your own is actually detracting from that person's wellbeing, their career, something that may be a really key source of support for them. That's really important for us all to have an awareness of and think about for each other.

EMMA-LOUISE: It can be difficult though can't it, for people to know what they can and can't share.

SANAH: Yeah, it can be really difficult. With current social media culture, you can witness lots of people sharing and recycling each other's work, and you might think that that's okay if you're seeing other people do that, but it's really important to have an awareness that that isn't okay and you're potentially breaking intellectual property laws by doing that.

EMMA-LOUISE: And what about torrenting and streaming sites? Are these okay?

SANAH: No, they're not okay. There's a risk of downloading a virus but also, you're breaking the law, breaking intellectual property laws, which puts yourself and your parents at risk for having to pay massive fines, potentially.

EMMA-LOUISE: So, what steps do you take to protect your ideas and content from being stolen?

SANAH: I tend to share my poetry through the medium of video. So that's videos of me performing or videos of me reading poetry that I've filmed and that way, it's associated to my face and my voice.

EMMA-LOUISE: Do you have any advice for anyone else trying to protect their content online?

SANAH: Yeah, I mean, doing the same thing. If it's appropriate to share your work through the medium of video so it's associated to your face and voice, then doing that. But again, if you're sharing creative writing then just be mindful, can it be through an image that can't be lifted or copied and attaching any tags to it or names to it?

EMMA-LOUISE: That's really good advice. Thank you, Sanah.

Sharing other people's content online or referencing it in schoolwork is common and acceptable, as long as you give credit to the original creator. This is called 'fair use' or 'citation'. But, copying someone else's work and passing it off as your own is a type of theft, it's called 'plagiarism'.

You have to learn to give credit to the original creator to avoid real world consequences. If you need help, ask a teacher for advice.

You can also use CreativeCommons.org. They collect content that creators have explicitly allowed to be shared, and give you clear guidelines on how you're allowed to use it.

But the general rule is treat other people’s work with the same respect you’d like your work treated.

Do that, and you won’t go far wrong.