Intellectual Property vs. Content Inspiration: Protecting Your Work as a Creator

We're diving into a hot topic: content copying. I’m breaking down the difference between inspiration vs copying, how to protect your intellectual property, and I’m sharing personal experiences of copyright infringement and the best ways to handle it all.

We'll talk about what you can do when your content is taken without credit, the right and wrong ways to get inspired, and why it's so important to celebrate your own originality in the online space. If you’ve ever wondered when to shout someone out or how to make sure your ideas are protected, this episode is for you!

In this episode we’ll be covering:

• The difference between content copying, inspiration, and intellectual property and why it matters. 
• My own experiences with copyright infringement, how I handled it and what I wish I had done differently.
• Deciding when to take legal action vs. letting things go and what options are available to you for dealing with content theft.
• Trending or viral content vs Intellectual Property: enjoying when others use the concept and knowing what’s “teachable” vs. just “inspired content.”
• Best practices when it comes to other people's content: obtaining explicit, written permission before reposting others’ content and knowing when to tag another creator to give credit where it is due. 
• My method for handling content inspiration when I can’t recall the original creator.

Recommended episodes:

• Episode 35: Turning Inspiration into Unique and Original Content
• Episode 42: Your Simple B-Roll Can Become Easy Reels That Actually Convert
• Episode 63: Was That an Ad? Even the Big Brands are Making it Personal
• Episode 95: Building Real Community with Stories and Shared Moments
• Episode 107: Where To Find Content Ideas So You’re Always Ready To Post
• Episode 111: It’s How You Fill in the Blanks That Makes the Hook Unique to You

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Transcript

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:00]:
I am your host, Shannon McKinstrie. Welcome to Good Content, the podcast where I remove the never ending content creation, guesswork and overwhelm so that you can actually enjoy being on social media again and growing your business with what has always worked. Good Content. All right, y', all, we're going there. We're talking copying content. What content copying is versus inspiration versus actual, like intellectual property, too, that you can't use of others. So I just want to make sure.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:36]:
This is just to make sure that you. If you're ever like, do I shout someone out? Is this okay? Am I going to get in trouble? I got you. So let's just dive in real quick. Let me tell you why this is something I'm very passionate about. A couple years ago, and you guys might have been around for this, I had someone claim that my signature method that I teach on, I'm hired for, I'm writing a book about, was theirs, right? This. And I got it sent to me by three other people and they're like, Shannon, this creator is claiming this method. And everyone knows, right? Because it starts at brand confusion, things like that, right? It's like likeness, whatever you want to call it. And it's literally my thing.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:18]:
And obviously I was very upset. Now, I did not do what I would normally do. I normally would DM them handle it privately. That's usually what I do. I've had my content copied hundreds of times. And usually I just write in the caption and be like, hey, so glad this inspired my content inspired you. But I would just appreciate, you know a tag. Other times I'm like, it's not even that deep, right? It's more like it's intellectual property.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:42]:
Meaning it's not something I grabbed off the Internet. It's not. It's my own brain from years of testing. That's different, right? So I made a video because I had thought she blocked me. It's a long story. Uh, it got really, really, really ugly. But I. I wouldn't.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:00]:
Was one that had actually blocked them because years ago it had happened then too. So that was something that did have to involve lawyers. It ended up again being really ugly. And, you know, people saying that I can't claim this as my own, when in fact this is literally, again, you can. So I just want to make sure, you know, if you ever get into that type of thing and people are telling you you can't trademark that, that's not. You can't claim that. Yes, you can. There's a difference between, like I said, intellectual property.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:30]:
And like, trends. Okay, so something like that, where someone is literally stealing your content word for word, or claiming your strategies, methods, teachings as theirs, you can absolutely take legal action. You can also submit something to Instagram and they will delete it. They will literally remove the content. I just Googled it. You Google copyright report form Instagram, it'll pop right up. You'll need to show proof screenshots of your content, theirs, and it doesn't take much time. And then they will fix it for you.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:00]:
I've had to do that as well. And every time the content has gotten taken down, which is great. Now, there's also. Years ago, I did a reel where I said, you can't convince me that sitting in a dimly lit restaurant with martinis and hanging out with the ultimate yappers doesn't have healing powers. Something like that. Right. I can pull it up. It was from two years ago.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:19]:
This is my birthday. And it went viral. It went crazy viral. I have seen it everywhere, which is kind of funny. Just recently, it's like, trending, and I see all these people doing it. Did I create the original? Yeah. Doesn't matter. I'm not offended.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:32]:
I love it. Right? That's where it's like, ooh, look, people like that idea. That's not something I teach on. Right. That's not a big deal. I don't go all crazy. And I think that, what. At the end of the day, it's like, is this really worth 5 minutes of my day? No.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:47]:
That sort of stuff. So again, when you see people all doing a trend and saying the same thing, My rule of thumb, though, is put your own spin on it. Maybe change it a little bit. Maybe change the beginning, the end. But that's the difference between stealing, copying versus just inspired by the video is different right now. This is the other problem. If someone has taken your reel, your photos, et cetera, and put it straight up on their page. Now, this happened also about three years ago.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:16]:
There's a creator, huge following in our space in the Instagram social media marketing world. They have a membership, kind of like how I have the Reels Lab. They have a membership as well. On that membership's Instagram account were videos from me, other creators in my field. I remember, I think my friend Juan's was on there too. What upset me even more was, like, women, men people of color. They were swiping all these videos that had anything to do with Instagram growth and putting it on their page. Now they were doing it because they were like, oh, these tips are really good.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:49]:
And they are, right? I mean, I'm seeing such good content on their page. And my friend, also, this is actually when at first I saw it, I. I was like, oh, how cool to be featured on that page. Cause I was just a little guy, right? I still am. And later I'm like, wait a minute, because someone DM me and goes, are you in that membership? Are you a coach in there? I'm like, no. So now people are associating their membership with me, and they're making sales off of me. Manu Juan, all these people, because of our videos, because they think that we back up this membership. We do not.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:25]:
That is a huge violation as well. So be careful. If you're using other people's videos, you have to get permission. And I would make sure you have it in writing, in an email, in case. Because we could have gone legal, you know, we could have taken legal action. But again, it's like, it costs money, time, stress, you know? So I just wanted to say, if you're about to post something and you did not create the video, you did not create the text or anything, you need to get full, full written permission. Even if you're like a funny meme account, I will say, like the creator account that Instagram runs, they've a few times taken threads of mine, actually, a couple times. And I'm like, yeah, I was all excited, and I'm like, that's totally fine.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:03]:
That is huge. And they tag me. So stuff like that is usually okay, but I. I even think sometimes people will be like, no, I need. But usually as long if you're asking them, or it's like your account is kind of in alignment, but it's very clear that you're not like, even. That is kind of on a thin line. But that's huge. If Creators features you, you're like, I want to be on there, right? And they tag me.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:24]:
Of course they give credit. So the basic thing is, like, my friend Emily used to say it. She'd go, when in doubt, shout them out. So if you're like, should I? Now, A few months ago, my husband went viral for doing the what Up Gang. And it was hysterical, mortifying. But it's where he goes around and there's all these clips of him going, what Up, Gang? And I'm mortified, right? One time we were in. In an airplane. I couldn't escape.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:48]:
It was like, it was horrible. It's a really funny video. It went viral. All these people in the comments are like, find your own shtick. This trend belongs to so and so. And Ryan's like, yeah, I know, that's why he's. And Ryan had shouted him out in the caption and the guy wrote it, shared it, and was like, good job, team. That is a collective trend, that was not stealing.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:09]:
Ryan even gave him credit. And even if he hadn't, you don't own that sort of stuff. But again, when in doubt, shout them out. So Ryan shouted him out. Now, what happened with the creator that, you know, there was legal involved. They said that whole thing of stealing my method, they blamed chat GPT for that. So that's another thing we have to be careful about. Now, they did say use my method, and you can't say that if they had said use the method.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:39]:
But claiming it as their own is where the big problem lied. That one word. And the legal team, my lawyer that I hired for this literally said, if that word my had not been there, it wouldn't have been an issue. So when you see things, maybe it is something you came up with. But if they're claiming it as their own, that's an issue. And you can DM them, you can email them and politely ask them to take it down or just say, I won't say anything, I won't do anything. If you take this down now, they'll usually just take it down. It's not worth their time and it's embarrassing.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:06]:
Right? So that's one way to do it. You can also comment on the post and ask for credit, which I've done as well. Or that's basically how to handle it. Don't go the Shannon route and get so upset and do a video off the jump. I should not have done that. But at the time I was so angry about it because it does feel like a violation when it happens. But don't let your emotions get the best of you. Handle it privately.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:34]:
And then if. Then it doesn't go well, you know, as my girls did, they were like, you know, we ride at dawn. Because as someone who works very, very hard and makes sure even like things, I've come up with ideas. I will Google to see if anyone else has said it so I can give them credit. Like, I do pride myself on that. I'm very. I'm also a rule follower. I'm the type of person that does not break rules, you know, for, like in.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:59]:
Even in a concert. I'm like, I, this is our spot. We're not going to push in front of people. Like, I'm one of those. I just don't ever want to upset, offend. So that was a really hard situation when it happened. And I, I. To be honest, I mean, I cried for like a week straight.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:11]:
So take it from me, especially if you're sensitive, deal with it privately. If you don't hear from them, obviously seek legal attention. Because everyone in the comments was trying to tell me, and guess what? That trademark is about days away from being in my hand. So everyone told me I couldn't trademark it. Everyone told me, I, uh, everyone teaches this. And it was so nasty. We have to remember, even in this age of AI, that we're able to protect what we have created and what goes through our minds and the thing, the ideas we come up with, the recipes we did right. And I know it happens a lot in the food creator world.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:46]:
People steal each or they'll be like, oh, the viral blah, blah, blah recipe. And it's like they won't even shout out the creator. It's like just. It went in doubt. Shout them out anyway. This isn't the most fun subject, but it is important to know. And then it is important to know that Instagram is there to protect you. I know sometimes it feels like reaching out into a void when you reach out to meta, but there are forms and they will typically get right back to you.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:07]:
And they'll either say, we either didn't find anything wrong with it, or they'll be like, yep, you're right. We took it down another creator years ago. It was a beat that had like six beat drops. And so you'd go like, word, word. You'd have the text drop on each beat that is not created by anyone. There's millions of reels with that. And some guy wrote on mine and goes, excuse me, you need to give me credit for that. And I was like, I was like, hold on, this is getting silly.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:35]:
So I know sometimes you might even say, oh, that looks a lot like mine, but it's not exact. If it's not worth your time, don't even address it. Just keep it moving. But when you are unsure, I know even sometimes I'll say something that I learned or saw, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, I can't remember who this was. Someone tell me. And if they come back to me, oh, it was me. I'm like, okay, let me give them a tag. We're all here to.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:57]:
Especially for listening to this podcast. You're here to grow, make a difference in this world, provide for your family, donate to causes you believe in, and you want to do this all ethically. So that's the best thing you can do is just. And I think a really big thing to do is just don't look at what other people in your industry are doing so much, because that's not where you're going to get the best inspiration anyway. I mean it. If you're like me, it's going to make you go, oh, I suck. So what I do is I consume so much content outside of my niche, and then I'm like, ooh, why was that so good? How can I use it for my niche? And that's where I get my inspiration from. Again, like, I.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:30]:
I've done carousels about like, oh, here's tiny habits I do to make content creation feel easier, whatever it is, right? Maybe that's because I saw a carousel about, oh, I'm a mom or I'm a dad, da, da, da. Here's five tiny things I do to xyz. All I grabbed was tiny things. I'm like, oh, that's a cute little phrase. It makes it feel doable. So things like that. You're okay if you're swiping someone's exact hook. Not okay.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:54]:
Put your own spin on it. You're here to be a human on the Internet. You're here to connect with people and have that human connection. So make sure it's you. You can totally get inspiration from other content and it look like you, and I love it. Someone said the other day, they're like, I knew this reel was you before I even looked at the name, and my face was in it. And I was like, that is it. That is it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:19]:
That's the familiarity. We don't want to follow the same 18, whatever fashion bloggers, the same 20 dentists, the same. Right? We want you. So because of that, I'm not worried about you guys copying. I'm worried about you getting copied. So that's how you handle it. And again, don't pull the Shannon method and go full crazy. But I stand.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:43]:
I mean, what happened, happened, and it was real and it sucked. Reach out to them. Handle it behind closed doors if you can. And if you don't. Sara Wiles, a friend of mine, she just had her content completely scraped. I mean, word for word on a carousel. Also a huge no, no. And she didn't out the person, but she is talking about it and she's basically like, if the girl doesn't get back to her within 48 hours, she's.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:13:09]:
She's blasting her. And I'm like, that's a perfect way to handle it. Because then it's like, are you kidding? I try to settle this amicably and kindly, but we work really, really hard. If you're showing up every day for your business and you're showing up on stories and you're posting stuff, you work really, really hard. And you deserve to protect that work. I love you, friend.