411 For Creatives
How to keep yourself from stealing other peoples ideas.
Copyright
The exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same.
Creative Commons
If you want to give people the right to share, use, and even build upon a work you've created, you should consider publishing it under a Creative Commons license. CC gives you flexibility (for example, you can choose to allow only non-commercial uses) and protects the people who use your work, so they don’t have to worry about copyright infringement, as long as they abide by the conditions you have specified.
Creative Work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including but not limited to artwork, literature, music, and paintings. Creative works have in common a degree of arbitrariness, such that it is improbable that two people would independently create the same work.
License
A permit from an authority to own or use something, do a particular thing, or carry on a trade (especially in alcoholic beverages).
Plagiarism
The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
Piracy
The unauthorized use or reproduction of another's work.
Public Domain
The state of belonging or being available to the public as a whole, and therefore not subject to copyright.
Fair Use
(in US copyright law) the doctrine that brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder.