RV 101® / RV Education 101®

I wrote this article to bring awareness to a huge problem on the Internet, copyright infringement. The act of copying and using another author’s work is prolific on the Internet, and it is plagiarism and/or copyright infringement. Let’s start with some basic definitions.

Copyright – The definition of copyright by Merriam-Webster is: the legal right to be the only one to reproduce, publish, and sell the contents and form of a literary or artistic work.

Infringement – Depending on the source, the definition for infringement is: a breach, infraction or violation of a law, regulation, agreement or contract.

Copyright Infringement– The explanation of copyright infringement by the U.S. Copyright Office is:  As a general matter, copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner.

Plagiarism – The definition of plagiarism by Merriam-Webster is: The act of using another person’s words or ideas without giving credit to that person: the act of plagiarizing something.

Internet – The definition of the Internet by Merriam-Webster is: an electronic communications network that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities around the world.

The Internet changed the world

It is prolific! The Internet changed the way we live, the way we view things, and the way we do things. I, like many others, lived in a world without the Internet for many, many years. I grew up without the internet. If you had to research a homework assignment you went to the public library. If you wanted to purchase a product you went to a store that sells the product. Then came the Internet. The Internet made almost everything we do, easier to do. And it made plagiarism and copyright infringement easier to do too. You just copy, paste, post and voila, it’s that simple.

Our company, RV Education 101, would be classified as a dot-com company. As the Internet grew, so did the entrepreneurial spirit to get rich quick. The Internet spawned the growth of small and large companies with products to sell and a domain name to create a dot-com business overnight.  Lots of the dot-com start-up companies from the 90’s are long gone now. The companies who managed to survive the “dot-com boom” did so by learning the way of the world wide web. Somewhere along the way, you learn about Search Engine Optimization or SEO, and the need for unique, rich, quality content to survive in your tiny space on the Internet.

Our company survived the dot-com boom, and this year we are celebrating our 20^th work anniversary. As the company grew, so did the struggle to defend our name and our brand from the barrage of copyright infringement. We are a video production and RV information company, so copyright infringement on the Internet would eventually affect every aspect of our business, (articles, checklists, videos and photographs.) We worked too hard to get where we are today to let copyright infringement take away what is rightfully ours.

This is our story, and our struggle against copyright infringement on the Internet

To read the rest of the story, CLICK HERE