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:
