Copyright Question

content pages using brands

[kglewis]

I have a client who I recently wrote 3 content pages for that were for publishers of books, and now the client doesn't think they want those keywords and content pages because of potential copyright infringement. I have never had a problem with this, but I was wondering if anyone has any knowledge of whether this could be considered copyright infringement or if you know for a fact that we have nothing to worry about.

Thanks

[hunderdown]

Do you quote from a book, or paraphrase extensively? That could cause a copyright problem.

But it's not clear from your question just what the problem is--you also mentioned brands, which are subject to trademark law, which is different.

Could you be a bit more specific? You have to make clear what it is that might be considered copyright infringement....

[kglewis]

What I'm doing is writing content pages on Textbook Publishers, McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, and Glencoe. I do my research on that particular publisher, which involves going to the publishers site and researching the mission statement, history, that sort of thing, but I don't copy from their site, I put it in my own words and I try to stay away from even using some of the verbage that they use, but you just can't avoid that sometimes. My client was concerned that there might be copyright infringement, but we use other content pages that are about brand names for other clients and we've just never had a client ask this before, but haven't had any problems with using other company names (company names might be better than saying brands) in the past.

I hope this clears up your question. Thank you for your help.

[hunderdown]

If you're citing your source, and use the TM symbol next to any trademarked names, my layman's opinion is that there shouldn't be a problem.

The WORST that is likely to happen is that the company might ask your client to take the page down. But even that seems unlikely to me.

However, since I'm not a copyright lawyer and haven't seen the pages in question, I can't give you a definite answer. If your client is really concerned, they or you might need to consult a lawyer with copyright experience.