Thursday, January 31, 2013

Copyright Woes

So, as I am learning about being an ethical seller, I have accidentally infringed on copyright laws. Oops. Quite accidental, and very serious. I mistakenly referred to one of my products as "Elf on a Shelf", because that is what the graphic was called. Now, the "real" product/book/figurine, is called "Elf on THE Shelf". I guess changing the THE to and A is just not good enough. I also didn't think it was exactly the same, because the Elf looks very different from the Elf in the store. Live and Learn. I do try very hard to be a good copyright rule follower. It is never my intention to steal from anyone and/or use their product name illegally. It is going to make me CRAZY thinking and researching every word I put in my products in fear of breaking a rule and getting another "strike" from TPT. Some names are easily recognizable, and are a "no brainer". However, there are many products out there that someone has reserved the rights to the name and it may not be obvious. How about "I have, who has?" How about the word DOMINO? What about Dolch? What about even the word, "Flash Card"? See? I think I just might go crazy second guessing everything that has a name... Is it an official name? Or is it just what it is? Who knows? Stay tuned. Hoping for no more "Strikes".

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