On my soapbox as it pertains to Virtual Assistants:

During my first couple of copyright escapades I came across this great site: http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html.

Pay special attention to this section (excerpted from http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html):

“If I make up my own stories, but base them on another work, my new work belongs to me.”

False. U.S. Copyright law is quite explicit that the making of what are called “derivative works” — works based or derived from another copyrighted work — is the exclusive province of the owner of the original work. This is true even though the making of these new works is a highly creative process. If you write a story using settings or characters from somebody else’s work, you need that author’s permission.

For some additional light reading (I am being facetious) you can read all about the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works at: http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/overview.html and the Universal Copyright Convention at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Copyright_Convention.

The argument that there are only so many ways that you can describe a Virtual Assistant is getting old. If you use the IVAA definition give them credit, if you use Virtual Accuracy’s definition give them credit, etc. However, always ask the individual organization or VA to use their definition prior to putting it on your site. Don’t plagiarize another person’s definition and claim it as your own.

Becki