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Copyright 2019 Theresa Harvard Johnson
In the digital age, entrepreneurs are looking for ways to protect their branding strategies and creative content from theft. This issue not only affects those in book publishing, but people who are releasing content on multiple platforms – whether choreography and music, digital publishing online, learning platforms and blogs.
Technology has simplified the efforts of thieves, making it increasingly difficult to prevent them from violating rights to intellectual property.
This undeniable truth has opened unending ethical conversations in the congregation concerning plagiarism and copyright – especially as it relates to spiritually inspired content in the protestant, charismatic faith. The most obvious way to prevent plagiarism is to educate pastors, leaders and congregants concerning what it is and why it is a problem.
Below are nine additional, practical ways to deter thieves in the fight against plagiarism – the act of taking someone’s work and/or ideas and passing them off as one’s own; and copyright infringement is the illegal reproduction, distribution, performance, and/or publicly displaying work without the permission of the copyright owner.
The two are closely related.
The distinction, however, is that plagiarism is often seen as an academic issue, while copyright infringement is an everyone-else issue. In recent years, however, there has been tremendous effort to raise awareness about the ethical dilemma it presents for the 21st century, technology driven congregation.
In efforts to help believers whose content is tied to business strategy, here are seven steps they can take to protecting their content:
- Sign, date and keep originals of critical content. For my books and online articles about the ministry of the scribe, I keep original copies of each file including draft versions that reveal the development process.
- Obtain copyrights through the U.S. Copyright Office. While this is not necessary for all content, it is necessary for critical content for public distribution. For example, consider placing “copyright and fair use notices” on digital content. Recently, I began including copyright and fair use notices in my PowerPoint presentations at events when I speak – especially when public or private recording is taking place and things are distributed via social media. Contracts may be necessary if those recordings are to be sold, stored, shared or displayed publicly at another date. (People have been known to steal conference material that people have taught and build online schools around that content without their permission!)
- Obtain a trademark or service mark. Depending on your goals, it may also be affective to obtain ownership of your brand through the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. I trademarked “The Scribal Anointing” over a decade ago. I also had to update that petition to maintain my rights as part of my brand. In a court of law, this could be used to help prevent people from copying the phrase or creating similar phrases in attempts to steal the brand.
- Confront those who infringe upon your rights! I’ve done that many times. From experience, it falls on deaf ears. These people seldom respond. I have sent them then links to my products as gifts including “The Sin of Spiritual Plagiarism: Unauthorized Vessels,” an educational, interactive presentation on The Sin of Spiritual Plagiarism; a link to my Stop Spiritual Plagiarism Facebook group, and this web-based infographic, How To Spot Plagiarism. I’ve also written on the character of plagiarists specific to our faith.
- Become a member of the Digital Millennial Copyright Act’s official website. This service assists people which taking down websites that blatantly use plagiarized or stolen content in digital form. This includes videos, audio, cloned websites, stolen articles, stolen images, etc. This company is best known for policing piracy in the entertainment industry. I am a member, and have posted badges across my critical websites stating that they are protected. Best of all, this service provides the tools to shut down those individuals and websites who violate your rights.
- Become a member of CopyScape. This is a public service that specifically helps people, outside of the academic arena, identify and take down plagiarists. While I do use the paid service, and allow it to monitor the web for plagiarism on my behalf, it is not as comprehensive as the academic services used in universities. I do, however, recommend it.
- Talk about plagiarism and copyright violation. Education is a huge deterrent. People can plagiarize and violate copyright out of pure ignorance. It is, however, still wrong – accidental or not with consequences. In academic arenas, doctoral professionals have been stripped of their degrees because of it. Pastors have lost their positions, and well-known authors have had their awards, books, movie rights and earnings stripped from them – not to mention the tarnishing of their reputation. Editors of leading magazines have been fired, careers destroyed. In some cases, people have sued and successfully won court cases with punitive damages.
- Report violators to their web hosting companies, publishing agencies or other service providers. I have successfully done this. Most recently, I had several plagiarized or copyrighted videos removed from YouTube. You can write publishers, call the pastors of people, etc. To be effective, however, you will need to keep good records! Go back and look at steps one and two. People may not act or even respond, but keep beating the pushes as you are led. Revolutions have started with less. What you should not do is take it!
- Identify your plagiarists publicly. As a last resort – and without malice – you are free to highlight and share plagiaristic sites and content. I do so all the time among those I lead and mentor. In some cases, I take screen shots of my stolen material and archive on my computer for future use. If you have a loyal army behind you, bring the faithful brigade on board to respectfully do the same on your behalf. I am working on bringing this aspect to pass in my on life. You might want to try it too as it may be the strongest catalyst to getting your information taken down.
Listen, scribal ministry is my life’s work.
It is not a fad or a temporary move of the Lord that I am engaged in. As such, it is completely okay for me to protect the content surrounding my brand. My books, scribe schools of ministry, content, etc. is just as significant to me as Bush’s Baked Beans secret sauce. After all, some people are indeed carrying vision beyond their individual efforts.
Aspects of your service may be entrepreneurial. Don’t give it to thieves in the temple.
Finally, we all know that prayer is essential to our lives. After we have prayed, some of the steps we are directed to take look like those I’ve shared in this list.
ENROLL IN SCRIBE SCHOOL COURSES TODAY!
