You’re safe, Sandra!

: )

Sandy

Chances are that your country is a signatory to one or more international copyright treaties. If it is, then other signatory nations will protect your work under the same standards that your country’s copyright law does. This is a broad generalization, but what it boils down to is:

1. Be sure to respect the copyrights of others, and
2. If you find that others are stealing your work, contact your government representatives, author societies, artist networks etc. to see what you can learn about how to enforce your rights. You could also try to find an intellectual property lawyer in your country, but
3. Be aware that just as professional writers expect to be paid for their work, lawyers are also entitled to compensation for making use of their special skills.It’s true that many writers choose to give their work away for a variety of reasons, and many lawyers do pro bono work, but don’t expect either authors or lawyers to work for free. The choice is theirs, not yours.

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately i am not from united states.

Thanks for that defining advice Sandra. On reading through all of this information I was beginning to get a bit paranoid that I may have done something wrong after all. Yesterday I posted a couple of links on my blog and was beginning to wonder if I had breached copyright. I am always very mindful of doing the right thing, so pleased to read that a link is ok. Feeling relieved, Sandra

Of course that’s true — no argument here. But since this blog is for authors, we’ve approached the subject with them in mind. Thanks for commenting!

Sandy

We are brand promotion agency in India. Copyright is most important factor for protect the brands. It’s not only writer problem!

It’s true that different countries have different copyright laws, but there are several international treaties under which signatories give copyright protection to the other signatories’ citizens. The United States is a signatory to the major treaties and has bilateral treaties with a number of individual countries. This means that US authors have broad world-wide copyright protection.