copy righting my site

bruno89 · Sep 15th, 2006, 03:53

i dont know if this is the right forum but i didnt know what one to put it in so yea .

if i want to copy right a site do i have to register it or anything of can i just put it on ??

Ryan Fait · Sep 15th, 2006, 07:30

No, there is no registry. All things are assumed to be copyrighted even without notice, but it's generally a good idea to put the notice on your site. The preferred method for writing out the notice is:

Copyright © 2006 Your Name

More detailed info can be found here:

http://www.whatiscopyright.org/

bruno89 · Sep 15th, 2006, 08:02

ok thank you mate

Ryan Fait · Sep 15th, 2006, 10:27

No problem.

moojoo · Sep 15th, 2006, 14:41

BTW the HTML code for a copyright is © enjoy.

bruno89 · Sep 17th, 2006, 13:55

ye cheers moojoo i found that out lol google srch

JacobHaug · Sep 18th, 2006, 13:36

I thought I might also mention to you Bruno, that any content you put on the internet is copyrighted via the copyright law.

"If it doesn't have a copyright notice, it's not copyrighted."

This was true in the past, but today almost all major nations follow the Berne copyright convention. For example, in the USA, almost everything created privately and originally after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not. The default you should assume for other people's works is that they are copyrighted and may not be copied unless you know otherwise. There are some old works that lost protection without notice, but frankly you should not risk it unless you know for sure.

It is true that a notice strengthens the protection, by warning people, and by allowing one to get more and different damages, but it is not necessary. If it looks copyrighted, you should assume it is. This applies to pictures, too. You may not scan pictures from magazines and post them to the net, and if you come upon something unknown, you shouldn't post that either.

Here is a good copyright notice...
© 2006 Bruno189. All Rights reserved.

There ya go Bruno. All of the info I got I received from the following websites.
http://www.benedict.com/
http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

I am guessing the copyright website is copyrighted, so I decided I would quote my resources.

Legacy_Staff · Sep 18th, 2006, 15:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by JacobHaug

I am guessing the copyright website is copyrighted, so I decided I would quote my resources.

LOL
You'd make a good programmer.

Ryan Fait · Sep 19th, 2006, 02:10

Haha.

If something's copyrighted, what's the point of adding "All rights reserved" anyway?

JacobHaug · Sep 19th, 2006, 02:37

Just to inform the viewer that the content IS copyrighted and that if they use it without your permission that they are breaking the law. In fact in the 90's congress made this a felony, so watch out. You could go to jail.

In fact, I have improved recently and made a copyright page. Is about what my copyright page states.

©2006 Bruno All rights reserved.

All content (including texts, images, pictures, music, and flash) is the sole property of Bruno,
and unless otherwise stated, can not be used without written permission (E-mail is acceptable)
by said owner (Bruno)

Graphics and Web design are created by Bruno

Copyright is an issue that includes items too numerous to mention here,
so if you have any questions, please direct them to our support center at:
Bruno's Website URL Here

Thank You!

Ryan Fait · Sep 19th, 2006, 02:56

Yes, but simply putting a copyright notice automatically encompasses that. Explaining to a visitor what copyright does is redundant. Besides, if someone is a moron, then that is that much less chance you'll have to sue someone for ten million dollars, quit web design, and go live on a beach in the Caribbean.

bruno89 · Sep 19th, 2006, 07:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryanfait

if someone is a moron, then that is that much less chance you'll have to sue someone for ten million dollars, quit web design, and go live on a beach in the Caribbean.

lol i wish

ukgeoff · Sep 19th, 2006, 09:25

The copyright line at the bottom of each page is always a good idea.

What you will often find on web sites is a 'Terms and Conditions' for using the site.

This goes into more details also acknowledging other companies logos, etc, that you may have used, quite ligitimately. Example:

Quote:

All copyright, trade marks and all other intellectual property rights in the Web site and its content (including without limitation the Web site design, text, graphics and all software and source codes connected with the Web site) are owned by or licensed to Your Name or otherwise used by Your Name as permitted by law.

In accessing the Web site you agree that you will access the content solely for your personal, non-commercial use. None of the content may be down-loaded, copied, reproduced, transmitted, stored, sold or distributed without the prior written consent of the copyright holder. This excludes the downloading, copying and/or printing of pages of the Web site for personal, non-commercial home use only.

mreine · Sep 19th, 2006, 22:44

Copyrights are worthless for anything text related and marginally worthwhile for images. Few, if any, are going to copy anyones exact logo. If they copy it and change it enough for their own, they void your copyright. Same goes for text. If they take your entire content and reword it enough, then once again they void your copyright.

Don't believe me?

Well, how many times have you read the same crap over and over again on various websites? For every paragraph written, you can probably find 100 more just like it. If the copyright was a worth a crap, half the worlds websites couldn't exist legally.

(Professional website design)... uh oh.. just broke about 15,000 pages worth of copyrights. (Affordable web design)... uh oh... just broke another 20,000.

See what I mean?

There are only so many ways to say certain things and every way possible has already been published with copyrights in the footer. Just because somebody repeats what you have already said doesn't mean squat and certaintly doesn't mean they got the information from you.

Know what that means?

Prove it in court that they got the information from you. Not gonna happen!

The main purpose of a copyright is to prevent exact duplication of all colors, layout, text, images all together as one. Not too many people, if any, are going to do that.

bruno89 · Sep 20th, 2006, 16:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by mreine

Copyrights are worthless for anything text related and marginally worthwhile for images. Few, if any, are going to copy anyones exact logo. If they copy it and change it enough for their own, they void your copyright. Same goes for text. If they take your entire content and reword it enough, then once again they void your copyright.

Don't believe me?

Well, how many times have you read the same crap over and over again on various websites? For every paragraph written, you can probably find 100 more just like it. If the copyright was a worth a crap, half the worlds websites couldn't exist legally.

(Professional website design)... uh oh.. just broke about 15,000 pages worth of copyrights. (Affordable web design)... uh oh... just broke another 20,000.

See what I mean?

There are only so many ways to say certain things and every way possible has already been published with copyrights in the footer. Just because somebody repeats what you have already said doesn't mean squat and certaintly doesn't mean they got the information from you.

Know what that means?

Prove it in court that they got the information from you. Not gonna happen!

The main purpose of a copyright is to prevent exact duplication of all colors, layout, text, images all together as one. Not too many people, if any, are going to do that.

MEH!

Ryan Fait · Sep 22nd, 2006, 02:22

Well, I don't necessarily agree with mreine on that. At least to that extent anyway.

While I've never had to prove any content was originally, mine, whenever I make a design or an article, I'll print it out and mail it to myself. If I ever get into legal matters, having a sealed envelope with the date on it will greatly improve my chances of success in court.

grandadbob · Nov 27th, 2007, 20:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by mreine

Copyrights are worthless for anything text related and marginally worthwhile for images. Few, if any, are going to copy anyones exact logo. If they copy it and change it enough for their own, they void your copyright. Same goes for text. If they take your entire content and reword it enough, then once again they void your copyright.

Don't believe me?

Well, how many times have you read the same crap over and over again on various websites? For every paragraph written, you can probably find 100 more just like it. If the copyright was a worth a crap, half the worlds websites couldn't exist legally.

(Professional website design)... uh oh.. just broke about 15,000 pages worth of copyrights. (Affordable web design)... uh oh... just broke another 20,000.

See what I mean?

There are only so many ways to say certain things and every way possible has already been published with copyrights in the footer. Just because somebody repeats what you have already said doesn't mean squat and certaintly doesn't mean they got the information from you.

Know what that means?

Prove it in court that they got the information from you. Not gonna happen!

The main purpose of a copyright is to prevent exact duplication of all colors, layout, text, images all together as one. Not too many people, if any, are going to do that.

Hi,

I think your slightly misunderstanding what copyright actually is. You create a piece of unique intellectual property i.e. a drawing or photograph then you own the rights to that piece of work. The same applies to words as well but the words (as with any other type of creation) have to be unique enough to be to justify these rights. Copyright wouldn't apply to a sentence like "Professional website design" This is just a generic piece of English that is used in everyday conversation and cannot be owned by anyone. What your best to do in a situation where you wanted to protect a slogan or sentence robustly is register it as a Trade mark however you still couldn't protect "Professional website design" as it is too generic a term. I could probably register "Grandadbob's professional wrinkly web design" As it has just been created by me and won't be a generic term already widely used by the public. I could argue (probably successfully) that anyone using that term has infringed my copyright. Although I don't need a Trade mark to argue this a Trade mark is a more robust method of proof of ownership should a dispute arise. And a solicitors "cease and desist" letter quoting the trade mark and the registration number" will in the majority of cases remove any infringement.