In school it was plagiarism, and if you did it you failed or were kicked out. In the business world it is called copyright (or trademark or patent) infringement, and if you do it you can be sued. For consumers it can be labelled piracy, and for that you can go to jail.

It all boils down to stealing—stealing words, notes, arrangements, code and ideas.

A common “misconception” is that if something is on the internet, then it is in the public domain or it is fair use. Public domain has a variety of complicated rules about when the work was created or published. Basically, anything created after 1977 is protected for the life of the author plus 70 years. If it was created by a corporation it is either 95 years from publication, or 120 years from creation—whichever is shorter. Fair use, on the other hand can be quite subjective. Fair use usually covers educational, editorial, critique and commentary—not “I think that would look great on my site.”

Churches and ministries often get the wrong impression and think that anything of a spiritual nature is up for grabs or that because they are non-profit it doesn’t matter. That’s just not the case. In fact, did you know that all modern bible translations are copywritten and there are restrictions on exactly how much of it you can copy before you need to get permission from the publisher? In England, even the King James Version, is copywritten by the Crown.

Make sure that your entire Web site design is original, whether you provide it or use an outside source. This includes the overall design and all content including photographs, illustrations, music, video and writing.

The rule of thumb is that if you didn’t design it, write it, compose it, develop it or otherwise create it, and if you don’t have the written permission of the person who did, don’t use it. On the upside, there are a lot of people willing to share their creations. Some for free. Some for low costs. Some simply for credit. So contact them and ask.

Want to find out if someone has copied your content? Check out Copyscape. It will show you sites that have the same text as yours. If something comes up, check it out. It is possible that something was stolen, either from you or by you.