Does your company use social media to connect with customers? If so, you want your firm's social media pages to be attractive so they will draw in visitors. Like many companies, you might enhance your social pages by sharing published content. High quality content will give your company a professional image. Unfortunately, content sharing can get you in trouble if the content you or your employees are sharing is copyrighted.

Copyrighted content is the subject of an article I found in the Insurance Journal this week (see link below). This article is important considering all the content that's shared on the Internet these days. The article is directed at insurance professionals, but it is relevant to any company that shares content. The author cites the following five misconceptions about copyrights that are common among insurance professionals. If insurance professionals have these misconceptions, your employees probably do too.

1. Copyright compliance isn't important. Like insurance professionals, your employees may be much more concerned about protecting your company's intellectual property than they are about protecting other people's property.  This is natural but it is also dangerous. Anyone who infringes on another person's copyright is subject to a lawsuit.  A copyright infringement suit is likely to be both expensive and damaging to your company's reputation.
2. You can do whatever you want with articles you find online. As a writer, I hope you don't believe this one! As the article points out, it is important to distinguish between online and public domain. Articles that appear on the Internet are not necessarily in the public domain as they may be copyrighted. Public domain articles have no copyright, either because the copyright expired or because the article was written by the federal government.

1. My company doesn't do much content sharing. There's probably much more sharing going on at your firm than you think. These days, everyone is eager to share information. To protect your firm against lawsuits, you need to know what your employees are posting online.
2. If you buy an article, you're free to share it. The fact that you have paid for an article does not mean you can reproduce it. After all, if you could freely distribute any article you purchased, the publisher would never sell another copy. If you buy an article, you are paying for your use only.
3. A purchased subscription gives you the right to use the content as you like. Don't assume that you can freely share content you've purchased via a subscription. Read the subscription agreement carefully so you understand the rights the publisher has extended to you.

Suppose that you are surfing the Internet when you run across a wonderful article. You are anxious to share it so you post it on one of your social media pages. Unfortunately, you fail to cite the source of the article or the author's name. Anyone who reads it will assume that you are the author. Shortly thereafter, you are served with a lawsuit for copyright infringement. You are surprised and upset. But wait! Your firm is covered by liability insurance. Your general liability policy will cover the claim, right? Wrong!

Very few copyright infringement suits will be covered by your policy under Bodily Injury and Property Damage Liability (Coverage A).  For one thing, copyright infringement will probably not qualify as an occurrence. Moreover, it is unlikely to result in bodily injury or property damage.  Copyright infringement is covered under Personal and Advertising Injury (Coverage B). However, this coverage applies only if you infringe on someone's copyrighted material in an advertisement. Besides copyright infringements, Coverage B also excludes claims arising out of misuses of patents, trademarks, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights.

Finally, be sure to check out my new articles on Business Insurance. You can learn about Other States coverage (under a workers compensation policy) excess policies, debris removal coverage, and kidnap and ransom policies. You can also read about indemnity agreements, physical damage coverage for electronic devices (under a commercial auto policy), and the differences between autos and mobile equipment.

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