Copyright is a legal means for protecting a person or company's work. Copyright provides the person to have complete control over there own work; it will contain exclusive publication, how its distributed and the usage rights for the author. This shows that if a person protects there work nobody can publish or use it without crediting or getting consent from the author. The U.S Copyright office protects it.
Why is copyright important?
Copyright is important for many reasons but mostly because its protecting the creators rights and if there was no copyright in place anybody can just use peoples creations without permission or crediting them.
Steps taken to not break the copyright law
Don't use anything from the Internet without crediting the source or pretending its your own work, that could lead to plagiarism. Using arguments like 'I found it on the Internet' are not valid points against copyright infringement just because sources from the Internet may not seem as 'realistic' compared to a piece of artwork or a company logo if its copyrighted its just as important.
If you want to use something for a example a photograph in your work which you found but you have no ideas who's photograph it is as there isn't a clear identification of its copyright its better to not use the photograph at all as it may not be copyrighted but just in case it is, its better to stay safe and either continue searching to find its copyright or just look for a completely different photograph which you know its copyright so you can credit it.
Before you start to for example write an essay or analyse a photograph make sure you know as much information about your subject as possible before you start trying to complete your work. Sometimes its easier to research into something first and get as much information as you can rather than going into something with little to no knowledge. If you do that its mostly you won't commit plagiarism as you will have your own knowledge rather than having to use somebody else's.
Protecting your own work
Make sure your work is properly copyrighted and people can see its marked clearly. If its visibly copyrighted it will stop people from plagiarizing your work.
Model Release Form
Model Release Forms are legal documents which are given to the subject of a photograph to fill out and give the photographer permission to take photos of them or use photos of them where they are in the background but still visible. After the subject has signed the release form that person and the photographer must stick to the agreements so for example if the person changes there mind and doesn't like the photos taken they can't stop the photographer using them as they legally agreed to it. However if the photographer is going to publish photos with people noticeably in it but don't get a model release form signed they can face civil liability.
