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Business

Wilt Chaimberlain
STAFF
Wilt Chaimberlain
Treehouse Guest Teacher
Posted by Wilt Chaimberlain
Wilt Chaimberlain
Treehouse Guest Teacher

The Copyright Basics course is now live!

Hey, everyone! Very happy to announce that our new Copyright Basics course is now live!

Coding and design are creative endeavors, so the work you do on and for the web is protectable by copyright law. The Copyright Basics Deep Dive is just four quick stages, but it's packed with all the information about copyright and licensing that web designers, developers, and mobile devs need to know.

We cover how to legally copyright your work, the fundamentals of fair use on the Internet, licensing agreements, open source software, Creative Commons, what to do if someone infringes on your copyright, and a lot more.

Hope you enjoy it! Cheers!

-Chris

6 Answers

Kai Nightmode
Kai Nightmode
37,045 Points

Absolutely wonderful course. I had no idea how much I didn't know, which I now know and we'll you know... that's awesome!

I must admit though... I got distracted in one of the videos when I saw the Fair Use logo and thought... I bet that could be done in CSS... and a few hours later... it was!

Feel free to check it out at http://forestmist.org/share/fair-use/ ^_^

Thanks again for the excellent course and unintentionally distractingly and equally tempting logo recreation inspiration.

Cheers!

Wilt Chaimberlain
Wilt Chaimberlain
Treehouse Guest Teacher
Wilt Chaimberlain
Wilt Chaimberlain
Treehouse Guest Teacher

That's awesome!! :)

And thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. Knowing is half the battle, right?

Wilt Chaimberlain
STAFF
Wilt Chaimberlain
Treehouse Guest Teacher
Wilt Chaimberlain
Wilt Chaimberlain
Treehouse Guest Teacher

I've received a few questions asking if the course is focused on United States copyright law. The answer is yes, we talk predominantly about the United States. There is no such thing as "international copyright law."

However, most of what we talk about in the course also applies worldwide. And anytime something doesn't, I make sure to mention it in the videos or the teacher's notes. Besides, even if you don't live in the United States, US copyright law applies to works that are created in the US, which is a lot, so it's still important to understand the basics.

Just an FYI in advance. :)

Paul Looman
Paul Looman
Courses Plus Student 5,285 Points
Paul Looman
Paul Looman
Courses Plus Student 5,285 Points

I really enjoyed this course, but I do have a question. As a freelancer with clients, who would own the copyright; the freelancer (creator) or the client (owner)? If Iā€™m not mistaken the freelancer would own the copyright, but how would you deal with that situation. Would you just give them the copyright or charge them for it? Or maybe use it as bargaining chip? :) What is the best practice?

Wilt Chaimberlain
Wilt Chaimberlain
Treehouse Guest Teacher
Wilt Chaimberlain
Wilt Chaimberlain
Treehouse Guest Teacher

That's a great question, Paul. Generally speaking, the freelancer is doing a work-for-hire for the client, and the client would own the copyright to whatever you've created. That's pretty normal in the industry. Imagine yourself as a big company of some kind... if you hire a freelancer to do your logo or to build your site, you're going to want the full rights to that work going forward.

So most agreements between clients and freelancers are going to contain some sort of language about the work being a work-for-hire. That means they'll own the rights to your work once it's complete.

However, I've heard of freelancers offering a lower fee to be able to keep the rights to the work, if that's important to them. Everything's negotiable with a client. But I'd approach it less as a "charge them for the copyright" than "offer a discount for getting to keep the copyright."

Paul Looman
Paul Looman
Courses Plus Student 5,285 Points
Paul Looman
Paul Looman
Courses Plus Student 5,285 Points

Thank you, your advise reassured me that I am on the right path.

Andy Bell
Andy Bell
6,804 Points
Andy Bell
Andy Bell
6,804 Points

Awesome course. Every time I thought of a question I'd like to see you answer, you answered it in the videos.

What I liked best about the course was that you told us why we should care about these issues and how important it is to know these things. I tutor for a class that includes these topics, but I don't get too many people coming to see me, probably because of apathy on the students' parts toward the subject. I don't think that would be an issue if you were their teacher. You clearly explained, with real life examples, the consequences of not knowing copyright law. Thanks for this excellent course!

Hayden Evans
Hayden Evans
15,399 Points
Hayden Evans
Hayden Evans
15,399 Points

I finished this course a few weeks back and I learned quite a bit from it! Great course, especially for folks like me who are primarily technically minded (for me, programming/computer engineering). It's important to know how to protect your work but not many students like myself are taught anything about that. It's great to have courses like these on Treehouse for that!