When Social Media And Intellectual Property Protection Collide

By Author: Achilles Marshall
Total Articles: 8
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Today most companies have a digital presence, whether it’s through a website, a blog, or other social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more. If you’re not yet on the social media bandwagon, chances are you are planning to get there soon. In this increasingly interconnected world where information is easily and readily shared online, one problem that many companies are running into is how to PDF protect their documents that are out on the web to preserve intellectual property rights while still being able to share their message.

Companies today have tons of information that is part of their “intellectual property”, including videos, photographs, company blogs, whitepapers, and even website copy. With all the information that we are putting out there, it can be hard to track down when it is being misused, illegally copied, or misrepresented online. However, with good software, you can actually get a PDF protector that will safeguard your information before you even publish it on the web, making it more difficult ...
... to copy illegally.

It’s also important that you understand copyright laws, and what constitutes infringement, so you can properly use a PDF protect or other software to safeguard your intellectual information. Unfortunately under current copyright laws, the definition makes it difficult to count internet-circulated content as “published” copyright violation, since it’s not technically in hard copy published form.

When you create intellectual property, the best thing you can do is to register it with the U.S. copyright office. Even though you technically own the work as soon as you create it and publish it, this additional step protects your information and allows you the option to sue for infringement if you find someone illegally using your work. The next best step is to PDF protect the work so you can minimize the chances that it will be copied and used without giving proper credit, or paying for the access.

The internet is a vast and sprawling enterprise, and monitoring every part of the internet to discover copyright or intellectual property infringements is virtually impossible. Fortunately there are online tools that can help you monitor social media sites to automate the process of searching for your copyrighted work online.

Even with a good PDF protector, there may still be instances where you find your content being used illegally. In many cases, the person using it may not even know that it is illegal, so taking a measured approach is often the best course of action. It will save you the headache of extensive legal action, and help keep you from looking like a bully when the infringement was an innocent mistake.

If you do find copyright or intellectual property violations, you can always take action that ranges from contacting the violator and asking them to stop, filing an official complaint with a social media site like Twitter or Facebook, filing a complaint through the DMCA to block the content, or pursuing legal action. The action you take often depends on the severity of the violations and the response of the violator. The internet is a new world where we are just learning the rules, so it’s important to get out in front of copyright protection to ensure your copy is safe.

For more information about PDF protect visit http://www.locklizard.com/pdf_security_features.htm