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Fair Usage

open laptop with various images on the screen beside a plant, tablet, and headphones

Having worked in communications and being aware of copyright issues, I am doing my best to set up my blog and social media in a way that does not infringe on anyone's rights. While I am starting to introduce some of my own pictures, I am also reliant on royalty-free stock images, such as Pixabay. Reading and adhering to their content license summary means that I am trying to be extra careful in what I select and how I use it, regardless of my limited scope and reach. If you hover over any of the images I have used on here, you will see the attribution information 🙂

Right now, I am researching fair usage of book covers for book reviews, one of the things that I am eager to embark on. In wanting to do this right, I have found some interesting articles that speak to this matter:

Since book covers are copyrighted by nature, this led me down another interesting rabbit hole about the cover's rights and their ownership:

In conclusion, it looks like book covers are copyrighted, but would fall under Fair Dealing in Canada where, "Canadians enjoy fair dealing protections as a right for research, private study, education, parody, satire, criticism, review, and news reporting [emphasis mine]. These activities are not copyright infringement...." This is similar in the States where the U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index states the following:

Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that may qualify as fair use.

From what I've read, fair dealing and usage can also be extended to advertising activity, and as book reviews are a form of promotion, it seems that most authors would want this to take place (some of the blogs above mention the rarity of being sued for such a good-faith act).

Copyright law itself seems to be complex and fascinating, especially for a non-lawyer like me. For a look at some of the other sites I came across while delving into this topic, check out:

While fair dealing and usage would apply to my book reviews, I will likely take the cautious route and be selective in just using book covers where I can and either relying on personal pictures or royalty-free pictures for the remainder of the graphics. As a Christian, I want to be above reproach in these ethical matters, but also be open to learning if I have done something incorrectly and fixing those errors right away.

Credit for this post: Much thanks to Shannon at The Reel Bookery for bringing this topic to the forefront of readers' minds! She is well worth following for her amazingly creative bookish content, along with her passion to stand up for others through various initiatives she's undertaken.

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