In my current job working for a large casino gaming company, I am on call 24 hours a day, and I work 60+ hours a week. I have always enjoyed helping others in the casino industry to become strong, confident, influential leaders. My greatest joy in life has been mentoring others to become successful. Needless to say, my crazy work schedule, along with my second job of going to college, does not allow for enough extra time to help others as much as I would like to.
Due to my lack of time available and my desire to help people, I came up with the idea to create an Instagram page that focused on empowering people with daily positive quotes. I titled the Instagram page, Empoweryourinnerboss. This Instagram page was dedicated to positive and uplifting quotes for everyone to enjoy and was my way of positively impacting people’s lives on a daily basis.
![#Quotes “Do not judge me by the success….” [800 × 400] - Nelson Mandela](https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2817/33474136733_d58b05f09a_b.jpg)
“#Quotes “Do not judge me by the success….” [800 × 400] – Nelson Mandela” by junaidrao is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
My intentions with creating this page were sincere, positive, and entirely from the heart. All I wanted to do was provide a picture and a quote daily that would make people smile and feel better about themselves. This all changed the day that I started my research on media laws, policies, and procedures at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
After studying media laws, policies, and procedures, I realized that I was violating all kinds of copyright laws by posting these quote pictures daily. In the beginning, I was not creating my own content to post. I was finding great quotes attached to beautiful images on the internet and sharing them on my Instagram page. I was not aware that I was violating copyright laws because I did not create the content that I was sharing. I also had not received permission to use the content. Everything that I was posting daily was basically infringing on someone else’s copyrighted work.
“Police Officer Breaking the Law” by Call To Adventure is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Of course, I did not intend to infringe on another person’s copyright. The moment that I realized that I had violated these laws, I immediately deleted all of the posts on the page that I had not created myself. I then researched further on Instagram’s rules and regulations and wondered if I can still violate another person’s copyright if I did not intend to infringe?
Instagram states, “In most cases, you shouldn’t use someone else’s copyrighted work if you don’t have permission. It is possible to infringe copyright without intending to do so. Remember, your use of someone else’s content may still be infringing their copyright, even if you:
· Give credit to the copyright owner
· Include a disclaimer that you don’t intend to infringe copyright
· Say that the use is a fair use
· Didn’t intend to profit from it
· Bought or downloaded the content (for example, a copy of a DVD or a song from the internet)
· Modified the work or added your own original material to it
· Found the content available on the internet
· Recorded the content onto your own recording device (for example, from a movie, concert, sporting event, etc.)
· Saw that others have posted the same content as well
“DUD_0159” by wouter! is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
I read through the rules of copyright and posting content on Instagram, and the rules state, “It is generally a good idea to get permission before posting content and to get that permission in writing.” According to Instagram, if you want to make sure that the content that you post to Instagram does not violate copyright laws, you should only post content that you’ve created yourself.
Before you post content on Instagram, you may want to ask:
· Did I create all of the content myself?
· Do I have permission to use all of the content included in my post?
· Does my use of the content fall within an exception to copyright infringement?
· Is the content protected by copyright (for example, is it a short phrase, idea, or public domain work?)
If you would like to make sure that you are not violating copyright laws and would like to learn more about Instagram policies and procedures, please read “How to legally reshare Instagram posts.”
“Handcuffs” by The.Comedian is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
