#bloggingedumacation: How to Share Someone Else’s Content

In this #bloggingedumacation lesson, I’m going to teach you the proper way to share another blogger’s content.

Here’s the scenario:
You’re looking for great content to share for your Friday Favorites Post or you’re looking for some amazing Cheesecake Recipes to share in a Cheesecake Roundup. So you go hunting for said posts. You find what you’re looking for so you grab that person’s image, add it to your post and link back to them. You keep going till you find what you’re looking for, complete your post and then hit the publish button. Sound familiar? Yes?

Let me clue you in to something….you are violating people’s copyrights when you do something like this. You could receive a DMCA notice. Your host could receive a DMCA notice. You could receive a bill for using someone’s image without their permission. Your copyright violations could cost you a lot of money.

So where did you go wrong? The image part.

You CANNOT just take someone’s image no matter if you are linking to that person properly/correctly. You MUST get permission to use someone else’s hard work. That means if you find someone’s post that you’d like to link to because you’d like to use their image in your Cheesecake Roundup, you must ask permission. ALWAYS! There is no way around this part.

If you simply want to link to someone’s post, a proper link and credit back works. Like this:
Blogging Edumacation | Pink Heels Pink Truck

Or if you are talking about something and you’d like to link to this amazing brownie recipe roundup you’d simply link those words like I’ve done here.

Contextual linking and Post Linking with Blog Name Source to others content is encouraged, as long as it’s relevant to your own content. Just DO NOT take (aka Steal) someone’s image and use it in your own post without permission.

Most bloggers will grant permission to use a small graphic to use in a picture collage. Some will grant permission to use a small version of their image. And some will flat out tell you no. You have to respect their wishes no matter the outcome. It’s their content. It’s their copyright.

So, what is a DMCA notice/letter?

If you were to take my image from one of my posts and place it on your site without my permission, I could send you a Cease and Desist notice/letter (aka DMCA…Digital Millennium Copyright Act) telling you to remove my content from your site. If you don’t cooperate, I can send it to your host and your host will remove your entire post. I could also send you a bill for using my graphic. Copyright infringement is not a joking matter. It’s a very serious offense. I could sue you for Copyright Infringement.

So, ultimately, make sure you always ASK PERMISSION before adding anyone’s image to your site. You do not want your post taken down by your host and you most certainly do not want a bill. And you MOST CERTAINLY DON’T WANT TO BE SUED!

Have questions? Ask!

Want to see if someone is using your images without your permission? Learn how to do a Reverse Image Search here.

Want more #bloggingedumacation lessons? I’ve got plenty here!