Give Credit Where Credit is Due

We all learned in school that copying is bad.  Copying and not giving the original author credit is even worse.  That’s called plagiarism and it’s considered unethical and dishonest.   Stealing material that has been copyrighted can land you a fine or time in jail. 

In our work with TpT, it is important to make sure that we are not inadvertently using copyrighted material without giving credit to the original author or illustrator.  This is something that I struggle with at times.  Of course, I agree completely that it is right to give credit to the person who originally wrote or designed anything that I use in my products.  (Notice that I left the copyright symbol and the illustrator's name in the cartoon I pasted above!)  My problem is keeping track of who I should be giving credit to!

I’ve started to add to my files the logos of every seller that I purchase a product from.  For example, in my “Camping Whimsy” clipart file, I have the logo for the store Whimsy Clips.  Many authors and artists include this logo in their “terms of use”, but some don’t.  In that case, I have to do a little investigating to find the logo on a webpage or blog.  If I can’t find an official logo, I use the picture from the seller’s TpT or etsy store.  I hyperlink the logo or picture back to the seller’s store. 

I put these seller logos on a “Credits” page in every product that I sell.  (Of course, I only include the sellers that actually contributed to that particular product).  Here’s an example of one of my “Credits” pages:

 There are many people who have credit pages that are lots more professional looking than mine.  I'm working on developing my own style and trying to figure out how to make my work as professional as possible.  I'm sure that I've made mistakes along the way!  But for now, the important thing is to do my best to be an honest and ethical TpT seller.