As a creator, you always deal with copyrights, even in the digital domain. If you want to make your work digitally available, it’s helpful to have insight into your legal position. Are you a photographer and want to upload photos on Flickr? Or are you an actor and want to share a scene from a play via Twitter? From a talk show host streaming a live show through their own channel to a composer uploading a performance on YouTube, we are happy to help you with the following questions.
Help yourself with these questions
What will you put online and why?
The first question is what exactly you want to put online and why you want to do it. Do you want people to only view the work, or can they also download it? Can others freely adapt or reuse your work, or only under certain conditions? Do you want them to credit you when reusing your work, or is that not necessary? And can they use it for commercial purposes, or would you prefer not?
Answering these questions helps you determine the conditions under which you will share the work. You can document this in a license or terms of use. This can be done, for example, with a Creative Commons license (CC). This makes it clear to all users what they can and cannot do with your work.
Determine the right license for your work. Use this handy tool from Creative Commons: Choose a License (opens in new tab).
Who are the rights holders?
When you create a new work, copyright automatically arises. You don’t have to do anything for it, and users are not allowed to reuse your work without permission.
In addition to your own rights, it’s also important to consider the rights of others. This could be because you create the work together with someone else and share the rights or because you use something from someone else. Think of collaborations with musicians, composers, choreographers, or a producer, and the use of a poem, text, photo, or artwork. Request permission to post the work online and under what conditions you do so.
Request permission to post work online that you have created with others
Permission for online use
Permission from rights holders to use the work in a physical or live product does not automatically mean you also have permission for online distribution. Therefore, explicitly confirm this with rights holders if you plan to share the work online.
An exception: works in the public domain
Works that are no longer under copyright because the creator has been deceased for 70 years or longer can be freely used. Even for commercial purposes. Your new adaptation creates new copyright. The reuse by others can be documented in licenses.
Discover which rights apply to the work
Go to the toolWhere will you put the work online?
There are many different ways to make a work available online. This can be done via your own website, a third-party website, social media, or online platforms such as YouTube or Bandcamp.
These platforms have their own terms under which you can make the work available. Make sure to find out what these terms mean for your own (legal) position.
What revenue model will you use?
Do you want to make your work available for free, or do you want to receive compensation for it? What rates will you charge for which type of use? As a creator, you can issue your own licenses or terms of use that describe what others are allowed to do with the work.
As a revenue model, you could, for example, choose paid downloads or a subscription system directly from your own website. An example is Wattpad (opens in new tab), a platform where writers share their stories with a global community of readers.
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