Now, far be it from me to advise on exactly what to do when a client asks what the next steps are in this kind of situation (and it goes without saying that if the client has a legal department then gladly hand over all your findings to them), but before we begin to entertain the prospect of infringement proceedings and mounting legal costs surely there’s a polite and civil way to go about resolving these things?

The automatic right

In the UK (and indeed most other parts of the world) there is no official registration system for copyright. It’s an automatic right that’s bestowed upon the author or creator when a piece of work of physically written or created.

The law states that a copyright holder has the right to

• make copies or reproduce the work for the purpose of selling
• import or export the work
• make changes to the original work
• display the work publicly
• assign or sell the rights to someone else

And though a website in its complete form cannot be considered for copyright, its individual content elements can be protected as

• Literacy works – such as written content, code, and database data
• Artistic works – including photographs, diagrams, and other artworks
• Recordings – such as audio and video content

What the law doesn’t protect you from is minor or ‘insubstantial’ copying. I was already aware that there is little or no protection for the ideas or facts which are represented in a work, nor for that matter is there for very minor work such as an individual title, headline, or even a tweet. But at what point does insubstantial end and substantial begin?

The Intellectual Property Office, the official UK government body responsible for copyright matters, states that:

A substantial part has been interpreted by the courts to mean a qualitatively significant part of a work even where this is not a large part of the work. Therefore, it is quite likely that even a small portion of the whole work will still be a substantial part.

After careful consideration and study the client and I both felt that if this third party company were deliberately using the written content to make clear financial gains then they at least had a case to answer.

Contacting the site owner

I’ve enjoyed some success in the past during these emotionally-charged embryonic stages of a copyright infringement claim simply by helping the client shape a polite but firm email (it’ll always carry more weight coming from the website owner rather than a representative) that informs the third party company that we’ve noticed content on their website has been directly copied from the client’s. Don’t hold back with the details either. Clearly state the occurrences where content has been duplicated, using comparisons with the client’s website where necessary. You could even attach some screengrabs to illustrate the points.

Why are we striving for this level of detail if they already know where the content originated from? Well, let’s not forget that the recipient of this email might be as surprised as you to learn that their copy has been lifted from elsewhere. They could just have easily hired a copywriter who took quite a shine to your client’s website. Try not to sound triumphant, cocky, or take the moral high ground to such an extent that you’re perched atop Kilimanjaro.

I’ve found offering a seven-day window to either remove or make significant changes to the content tends to suffice, with the added warning that you will be contacting their web host if they fail to carry out your request. Web hosting companies are usually very helpful and don’t want the negative publicity that comes with one of their hosted sites openly infringing on someone’s copyright.

After a few days of radio silence you may decide that a follow-up telephone conversation between the client and the third party company, in which they reiterate what was said in the email, might be in order. This leap of faith can help to humanise your request as well as making it abundantly clear how seriously you’re treating the matter. Again, tone is important. Don’t let them approach it too aggressively. If there’s any danger of that then stick to email, where it’s not nearly as easy to convey emotion.

No luck? Contact their web host

If after seven days you don’t hear anything back from the other party, or your calls are being met by answering machines messages, dial tones, or the faint sound of tittering then you’ll just have to get started on the email to their web hosting company. There are some great tools available which can help you work out who to get in touch with.

Detail your findings once again as well as your so far unsuccessful attempt(s) to contact the third party company. At this point it’s always worth having a look at the business terms and conditions listed on the web host’s website. What you’ll often find is an item that reads something like:

The Customer shall not, nor knowingly permit any other person to, use the Services to display or use any material which is infringing of any obligation as to confidential information or copyright or any other Intellectual Property Rights.

You could always politely remind them of this particular passage.

And when all else fails…

Thankfully I’ve always managed to help clients amicably resolve all cases of copyright infringement without the need for legal aid. Often it’s been nothing more than a case of opportunism or laziness on their part. But if you find that you cannot resolve the matter with the other party, or their hosting company are equally unhelpful, then by all means call in the experts. At least if it does end up in court your attempts to solve the matter through mediation will not go unnoticed.

For me it always takes a strange cocktail of mental fatigue and summoned bravery to unleash content like this onto the web. Sure, you can always re-read anything shortly after publication and very quickly eradicate any ‘Goodness me, how did that slip through the net?’ moments. Or a kind (but with more than a hint of smugness) sibling/friend/colleague/cat can always point out your most glaring of errors with seemingly little in the way of effort required.

Of course, when it’s your own website, blog or social media profile you can usually take as long as you need to publish something. Not always healthy but by and large the pressure (externally anyway) is off. It’s when you’re tasked with publishing content for an organisation with a far larger online reach and responsibility that the pressure is cranked up a notch or twelve and those self-doubting questions receive more airtime within the confines of your brain.

Let’s be honest though: publishing mistakes and oversights will happen (some having greater ramifications than most). I’m sure we’ve all, with the help of an ill-chosen, character-stuffed hog of a heading, blown a website apart in our time. You know the type: the side navigation menu would be slammed so hard it would have to resort to cowering below the footer; taking shelter under the privacy policy and copyright information. Only a significant character reduction on the part of the heading (and the empty promise of a new colour scheme) could coax it back again.

Naturally it’s when time is at its most premium that the online publishing process receives its most rigorous of workouts. Creating and publishing the content behind a breaking story or an emergency for instance can often cause all carefully considered editorial checklists, style guides and workflows to be nonchalantly tossed aside in a frantic bid to get something…anything live.

With headlines, names, numbers, links, quotes, images, and the crucial facts changing as the story develops there’s often a temptation to publish now and hone later – regardless of the content’s initial quality and direction. Even the most serene and level-headed amongst us can lose focus in the blind sprint to provide the reader with information.

Clearly this haphazard approach makes for a veritable breeding ground for all kinds of errors and oversights that you would never usually dream of publishing to all and sundry. And with a likely upturn in exposure to your organisation’s web profile as a result of this story who knows what damage you could be doing to the way your audience perceives you?

As Google begins to apply further weight and prominent positioning to live search results the pressure for some to publish useful, usable, and shareable content fast will no doubt increase. Those editorial workflows, style guides and quality control checklists – considered mere obstacles during moments of high publishing intensity – have never been more vital to ensure the web content you publish is accurate, consistent, relevant, and supports your overall web content strategy objectives.

Before beginning to compose something, gauge the nature and extent of the enterprise and work from a suitable design. Sometimes, of course, impulse and emotion are more compelling than design. But even this kind of writing that is essentially adventurous and impetuous will on examination be found to have a secret plan.

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, Longman 1999 (4th edition)

Simply put: it’s through a combination of good communication, an open culture of reviewing the work of others, as well as a healthy dose of scepticism that sees most glaring mistakes eradicated before the content sees the light of day.

And with that kind of support and filtering system in place you won’t have to approach the publish button with nearly as much trepidation – unless it’s your own website and the cat (still smug) has now assumed the role of editor-in-chief.

Recommended reading

• Chapters 7, 8, and 9 – Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson, New Riders 2009
• “When Content Management Needs a Content Strategy” – Predicate, LLC, presentation from Gilbane Boston 2009
• “Toward Content Quality” by Colleen Jones – UXMatters, 13 April 2009
• Interlude: Creating an organic style guide – Letting Go of the words by Janice (Ginny) Redish, Morgan Kaufmann 2007
• “All about web style guides” by Julie Espinosa – new media mentality, 9 September, 2009

Writing Decisions: Saving space without losing meaning

Jason Fried, Signal vs. Noise, January

“Think about what you really need to say, write it in place, figure remove what’s non-essential, pare it down, make sure you’re getting to the point without using terms that require additional explanation, rewrite, compare with the original, see if you’re missing anything important, and wrap it up.”

Trying to free up space by cutting existing copy without losing the overall message is always a challenge for a copywriter – especially when it was your own work to start with.

In Defense of Readers

Mandy Brown, A List Apart Issue 278, February

“Despite the ubiquity of reading on the web, readers remain a neglected audience. Readers flourish when they have space—some distance from the hubbub of the crowds—and as web designers, there is yet much we can do to help them carve out that space.”

It’s impossible not to learn a great deal from Mandy’s article on how to make reading on the web a little more comfortable for those that like to lose themselves in the words.

Toward Content Quality

Colleen Jones, UXmatters, April

“In my experience, a common misperception of the evaluation of content quality is that its scope is limited to the correction of typos and grammatical errors. Correcting spelling and grammar only scratches the surface. To truly consider content quality, we need to examine its quality along several dimensions.”

I see Coleen’s checklists as the filter from which lean, consistent, and task-driven content emerges.

Writing Killer Web Headings and Links

Gerry McGovern, April

“Web content is brutal and to-the-point. Lead with the need. Don’t get to the point. Start with the point.”

I had the pleasure of seeing Gerry speak in July. His blog entries, both thought-provoking and delivered with plenty of bite, certainly help to blow the cobwebs away on a Monday morning.

Writing Microcopy

Joshua Porter, June

“Microcopy is small yet powerful copy. It’s fast, light, and deadly. It’s a short sentence, a phrase, a few words. A single word. It’s the small copy that has the biggest impact. Don’t judge it on its size…judge it on its effectiveness.”

In moments of doubt microcopy can provide readers with both the assurance and confidence in the task you would like them to perform. Joshua Porter expertly conveys its importance as well as demonstrating great live examples.

The Case for Content Strategy—Motown Style

Margot Bloomstein, A List Apart Issue 290, August

“What’s your role? Are you a designer who needs “real copy” for your comps? Maybe you’re an information architect trying to organize an experience, or a search engine marketer eager to influence your client with keywords they’ll actually use. Whatever your role, a content strategist can help you be more successful.”

I had a visual stab this year at explaining how a content strategist can collaborate with different members of a web project, but Margot got it across beautifully in words.

<Insert Title Here>
(or, Variables in Interface Language)

Chris Noessel, Cooper Journal, August

“Variables in interface language are best when they fit in seamlessly, i.e. when they just read as content. When done this way, they can convey a sense of your software’s being more personal and smart.”

Copy that reads something like ‘you have 1 unread articles’ tend to jar with me. I see sentences that still read correctly despite containing one or more variables as a sign of quality and a big test of a copywriter’s skill in anticipation.

Content Strategy for the Web Professional

Jonathan Kahn, September

“No amount of research, information architecture, interaction design, or usability testing can create a great user experience if the content isn’t useful and usable—if it doesn’t help the user to get things done.”

Jonathan Kahn approaches the discipline of content strategy with a healthy dose of everyday realism. Anyone who’s ever took the time to consider the who, what, when, where, and why implications of their web content have been doing it all along without probably realising.

Write now, I’m cooking with Chef-O-Matic

Relly Annett-Baker, Stuff and Nonsense, October

“When writing for a client it isn’t enough to bring out the biggest thesaurus you have and throw down some fancy words. You need to know your subject inside and out.”

You can learn so much from reading about how your peers approach the challenges of their craft. The supplied images of printed draft copy daubed with the copywriter’s red pen never fail to fascinate.

Dyslexia Australia’s website has a particularly fascinating page which attempts to describe and demonstrate the visual stresses that occur when some people with dyslexia read. I’m going to try to faithfully re-create some of their observations here.

Attaching mental pictures to words

Some people with dyslexia comprehend certain words by attaching a mental picture to them. Take this short extract is from Oscar Wilde‘s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest‘.

Garden at the Manor House. A flight of grey stone steps leads up to the house. The garden, an old-fashioned one, full of roses. Time of year, July. Basket chairs, and a table covered with books, are set under a large yew-tree.

Now try reading the same extract but only reading the words that emphasised in bold type.

Garden at the Manor House. A flight of grey stone steps leads up to the house. The garden, an old-fashioned one, full of roses. Time of year, July. Basket chairs, and a table covered with books, are set under a large yew-tree.

Sadly not all sentences conjure up as many mental images as my example, but I guess that attaching such images must act as clues as to the subject and direction of a sentence.

Rivers of words

Dyslexia Australia also describe the ‘rivers of words’ that some people with dyslexia see when reading. This next extract is from Charles Darwin‘s ‘On the Origin of Species‘ (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - An extract from Charles Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species'

Figure 2 shows the same extract, but now all of the words are faded into the background and heavy lines have been woven between the words. I’ve used justified text here, with its variable spacing between individual words, to accentuate the point.

Figure 2 - The same extract, but this time with 'rivers of words'

Not so easy to read now is it? This inability to scan freely means you almost have to break it down to a single word at a time. Some people with dyslexia experience these visual distortions when reading, so rather than being drawn to the words on a page they are instead drawn to the spaces between them.

Reading on the web

So how can we help people with dyslexia read more effectively on the web? Some benefit greatly from the synthesised voice output from a screen reader, which helps them scan and track the text on a web page, as well as breaking down pronunciations.

In fact, pronunciations are the real issue here. I was surprised to learn that the main cause or factor in most cases of dyslexia is not to do with vision but phonology – or rather how the person converts what they see into the sound units that make up a single word.^[1]

Some may prefer to use a web browser plug-in which allows them to remove a website’s default stylesheet or override it with a customised version of their own. We’ve all come up against web sites that have an distinctly unhealthy penchant for long line lengths, tiny font sizes and harsh back/foreground combinations.

I often find myself turning to the readability bookmarklet from arc90. It really helps make even the most poorly presented written content more inviting – especially with a pair of tired eyes at the end of a long day.

Some people with dyslexia prefer not to use a screen reader, personal stylesheets or any kind of assistive technology while browsing the web. So how can we help them? I believe you can’t go too far wrong using:^[2]

• Short, sharp sentences – favouring shorter words wherever possible
• Clear Headings
• Bulleted lists – helping to summarise points or entire articles, often at the start to explain what you’re about to read and learn
• Healthy line height and letter spacing – preventing eyes wandering to the next or previous lines
• Static imagery – acting as visual memory aids and helping to enhance contextual understanding

Hang on, isn’t that how we all like to read on the web?

References

1. Dyslexia and Vision – dysTalk
2. Dyslexia Style Guide – The British Dyslexia Association