Content theft is when you use, benefit from, distribute or change someone else's content without their permission, awareness or the legal right to do so.
For example:
Saving someone else's fanart as your own, re-uploading it to another website and claiming it as your own.
Content theft is most commonly referred to as plagiarism, and can be legally punishable. Content theft is most commonly dealt with via a DMCA* or CADN**. Depending on the scale of plagiarism occurring, content theft can also be publishable by means of fines and legal notices.
All types of content can be plagiarised, from fanfiction to designs to artwork and concepts
*The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself.
**A cease and desist notice is a document sent to an individual or business to stop allegedly illegal or regulated activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms.
YOU ARE READING
Content Theft 101
Non-FictionWant to know if you're inadvertently stealing content? Want to know what to do if someone's stolen your content? Answers to the above and more can be found here.
