The information in this article doesn’t constitute legal advice and is intended for informational purposes only. Consult a qualified legal professional to understand your rights and responsibilities regarding copyright law. I am not a lawyer. Laws vary by jurisdiction and circumstance.
Copyright infringement is more common than most people realize, and writers aren’t exempt. Whether you’re writing your own book, hiring a ghostwriter, or using AI tools to assist with content, copyright law applies to every word you publish.
Lazy infringement makes me angrier than the deliberate kind. Writers who would never shoplift a paperback will lift a photographer’s image for a book cover or paste a stranger’s blog post into a manuscript and call it research. The person hurt is the creator who did the work and never sees a cent for it, and the writer who did it usually learns how serious it is only when a lawyer’s letter shows up.
Knowing the basics protects you from legal trouble and protects other creators’ work. For a deeper treatment of legal issues affecting writers, including contracts, defamation, and AI-specific legal considerations, see the Legalities Handbook.
What Are the Basics of Copyright?
For more, see copyright law for authors and content creators and copyright law for writers. This means that virtually everything you encounter online is copyrighted unless the creator has explicitly placed it in the public domain.
Lazy infringement makes me angrier than the deliberate kind.
Blog posts, photographs, social media images, videos, music, articles: being freely accessible doesn’t make any of it free to use. Taking an image from a website, using a meme built from a TV show, or copying text from someone else’s blog post without permission is copyright infringement, however common the practice is. I have no use for the “everybody does it” defense, because everybody doing it only means a lot of creators are getting robbed at once.
The copyright owner holds exclusive rights over their work. They decide how, where, and by whom their work is used. If you want to use copyrighted material, you need permission. Sometimes that means sending an email. Sometimes it means paying a licensing fee. Either way, the decision belongs to the copyright holder. (See also who pays when a designer used an unlicensed stock photo)
What Is Fair Use?
Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission. Quoting a line from a book in a review, using a small excerpt in an educational context, or referencing a work in commentary or criticism can fall under fair use. The boundaries aren’t precise.
Fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis, and courts consider four factors: the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount used relative to the whole, and the effect on the market value of the original work. The safest approach is to use as little copyrighted material as possible, always attribute the source, and never use someone else’s work in a way that competes with or diminishes the value of the original. When in doubt, ask permission or consult a lawyer.
How do writers avoid copyright infringement?
Create original content. This is the simplest and most effective protection. If you wrote it, photographed it, or designed it, it’s yours. Use Creative Commons and public domain resources. Creative Commons licenses allow creators to share their work under specified conditions. Public domain works have no copyright restrictions. Both are legitimate sources for content you can use legally, provided you follow the stated conditions and give proper attribution when required.
Get a license or permission. If you find copyrighted content you want to use, contact the copyright holder. Many creators will grant permission, sometimes for free, sometimes for a fee. A licensing agreement gives you legal standing to use the work within agreed parameters.
Don’t assume. Content on a public website, a social media platform or a Google image search doesn’t become free to use because it’s easy to grab. Assume everything is copyrighted unless you have evidence otherwise. I tell writers that asking costs them one email, and skipping the ask can cost them a lawsuit that eats every royalty the book ever earns. Lift someone else’s copyrighted or trademarked image and you can get sued whether you were paid for it or not. The first thing the owner usually sends is a cease and desist, and complying means you stop.
| Approach | How it works |
|---|---|
| Create original content | If you wrote, photographed or designed it, it’s yours |
| Use Creative Commons and public domain | Follow the stated conditions and give attribution when required |
| Get a license or permission | Contact the copyright holder; sometimes free, sometimes for a fee |
| Don’t assume | Treat everything as copyrighted unless you have evidence otherwise |
| Keep fair use small | Use as little as possible, attribute it, never compete with the original |
| Review AI output | Check for similarities to existing works before publishing |
| Protect ghostwritten books | Put an originality clause in the contract and check the manuscript |
Who owns the copyright in a ghostwritten book?
Ghostwriting creates a copyright situation that both the writer and the client need to understand before the project begins. In a standard ghostwriting arrangement, the client becomes the legal copyright holder once the work is complete. This is stipulated in the contract.
That specifies that the ghostwriter transfers all rights to the client. The ghostwriter waives ownership and future claims on the work. The client’s name goes on the cover, and the client owns the manuscript. This transfer of rights is why the contract matters.
Without a written agreement specifying copyright transfer, the ghostwriter could keep the rights to the work they created, and the client who paid for the book could discover they don’t own it. I’d never start a project without that clause, and a ghostwriter who wants to skip it is one to walk away from. The ghostwriter’s responsibility doesn’t end with the transfer of rights.
During the writing process, the ghostwriter must still follow copyright law. They can’t plagiarize, use copyrighted material without permission, or incorporate unlicensed content into the manuscript, even though the finished work will carry someone else’s name. This responsibility extends to the client as well, since they’re the published author of the work.
In February 2019, romance author Courtney Milan posted on her blog that passages in Brazilian author Cristiane Serruya’s novel Royal Love matched Milan’s book The Duchess War word for word. Dozens of other writers then said Serruya had lifted from their books too, and readers tracked the matches under the hashtag #CopyPasteCris. Serruya’s answer, according to the AP, was that she often used ghost writers for parts of her books and “could not guarantee that no part was copied” by them.
Nora Roberts sued Serruya in Rio de Janeiro in April 2019, calling the plagiarism “rare and scandalous,” according to the AP report. The suit named six Serruya books and alleged copying from Roberts’ novels, including Whiskey Beach. Most of Serruya’s books came off Amazon, and the Romance Writers of America withdrew Royal Love from RITA award consideration.
The ghostwriter excuse didn’t stop Roberts from suing, and I don’t think it should have. Serruya’s name was on those covers, so the copied passages were hers to answer for. If you hire a ghostwriter, put an originality clause in the contract and check the manuscript yourself, because readers and courts will come after the name on the book. In my ghostwriting contracts, copyright transfer is explicit. The client owns the work. The NDA protects confidentiality. These terms are non-negotiable because they protect both parties.
Does AI Content Violate Copyright?
AI tools like ChatGPT add a new dimension to copyright that the law hasn’t fully resolved.
AI language models generate text from patterns in their training data. They don’t copy specific works on purpose, but they can produce output that closely resembles existing copyrighted material. Courts and regulators are still working out whether AI text can be copyrighted and whether it can infringe, and I think that uncertainty is hardest on the writers who assume the tool has already checked for them.
As of now, the U.S. Copyright Office has indicated that works generated entirely by AI without human authorship can’t be copyrighted. Works where a human author uses AI as a tool in the creative process may still be eligible for copyright protection, but the boundaries are evolving. For writers using AI tools, the practical guidance is simple.
Don’t publish AI output without reviewing it for potential similarities to existing copyrighted works. Don’t assume that AI-generated content is automatically free of copyright issues. And don’t rely on AI to produce content that you then claim as entirely your own creation without significant human involvement in the creative process.
The law in this area is changing fast, and what’s true today may not be true next year. I use AI every day as a digital assistant and write my books myself, and I think any writer using it owes other creators the same care they’d want for their own work. The writers who publish raw AI output without checking it, and the companies selling that as a shortcut, are going to hurt a lot of honest creators before the courts catch up.
My take
Check AI output before you publish it, every time. The law here moves fast, and the courts will be slow to catch the people publishing raw machine text as their own. I use AI every day as a digital assistant, and I still write my books myself. Treat other creators’ work the way you’d want yours treated. When the stakes are real, talk to a lawyer instead of guessing.
References
Schedule a free consultation to discuss your book project.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Copyright in General, U.S. Copyright Office
- U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index, U.S. Copyright Office
- Copyright Office Releases Part 2 of Artificial Intelligence Report, U.S. Copyright Office
- Novelist Nora Roberts sues Brazilian author, cites ‘multi-plagiarism’, Associated Press
