Selling eBooks Online

[IbeCogent]

I write eBooks and try (no success yet, just optimistic) to sell them on the Internet. These eBooks are legitimate "How To" books. ie, How To Find A Job, How To Talk With Your Lender, etc.

1) Is it legal to take pictures (images) from the Internet, and modify them so that they overlap to form a bookcover? There is significant change in color, dimensions, cropping, angles and overlap creating what I believe is a new image.

2) Can I legally copy URLs and entry pages to government websites for job listings that are "clickable" (ie, so the buyer can access the wbsite to enter his/her job application?

3) What percentage of an article that I am referencing (ie, how to build a good resume) needs to be original conent in order not to violate someone's copyright?

3) How do I protect my work?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

1) Is it legal to take pictures (images) from the Internet, and modify them so that they overlap to form a bookcover? There is significant change in color, dimensions, cropping, angles and overlap creating what I believe is a new image.

If you take the work of others and modify them, you still are creating something called a "derivative work" which is tied to the original work. Frequently you won't run into problems if the end product is unrecognizable but there is no guarantee and, technically, you need to obtain a license from the owner of the original graphics to do what you want to do.

2) Can I legally copy URLs and entry pages to government websites for job listings that are "clickable" (ie, so the buyer can access the wbsite to enter his/her job application?

From my understanding, there is nothing preventing you from creating a repository of links or even providing deep links into governmental web site articles available for anyone to see.

3) What percentage of an article that I am referencing (ie, how to build a good resume) needs to be original conent in order not to violate someone's copyright?

The easy answer - all of it. If you are copying some of the content and adding your own, it is still a derivative work. If you read an article and rewrite the information in your own words, that's a different story. I'm not going to address any other protections other than the pure copyright issue.

3) How do I protect my work?

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Assuming it's yours, file for a copyright at the uspto.gov, where you can file for federal protection.