Three reasons why PR cares about copyright

Your PR department is probably the department most concerned about copyrights (outside the legal department, of course).

Here are three reasons.

Many PR people come from professional journalism backgrounds.  They’ve published or broadcast their thoughts and research.  They don’t want to see someone else casually benefiting from the fruits of their labors.

Even PR people without publishing or media experience are writers.  Humble and anonymous though the press release be, a PR person actually does write each one.  

Professional journalists and flacks, we all hope to produce a sentence, poem, paragraph, essay or book that lives on after us.  And when we do, we want our names on it, not the name of the person who hits the “copy” button or control-C.

Most pragmatically, PR people need positive relationships with media people.  Media people count on royalties or higher payments based on how many people read or see their work. 

What if I were a journalist and I discovered that the website of a company that was wooing me contained reproductions of my copyrighted work?  I’d be indignant.  I probably wouldn’t give that company good coverage. 

Unauthorized reproductions happen all the time.  A well-meaning and unsophisticated person scans a magazine article and puts the PDF up on the website.  Or the person exceeds the “Fair Use” doctrine and plagiarizes.  This happens in print, too, but it’s harder to spot.

If I were a journalist, I’d know that the job of the PR person at that organization was to cozy up to me.  I’d expect her or him to defend my copyright on my behalf, to stay on my good side.

Sometimes, as the PR person, I’ve noticed shocking plagiarism.  One example is a news site in a developing country reproducing entire articles without attribution.   I’ve pointed those violations out to the reporters whose words were stolen.  I didn’t do it to be righteous.  I did it because I wanted to strengthen the bond between the reporter and me.

As a PR pro, then, I occasionally make myself unpopular pointing out that, no, we can’t just reproduce copyrighted material.  I do it because it’s important in media relations.  But I also do it because I hope, one day, to write some immortal words.  And when I do, I don’t want Jim Bob’s Blog ‘n’ Bait Shop to take credit for them.