Do I need a website copyright, how does that work?
Good news on the website copyright front!!! Any materials,
pictures
etc... Produced by you for your website are automatically considered
copyright under US law.
Add the copyright symbol © followed by the year the material was published and your name to your materials. This is a reminder to those that visit your site, that it contains copyright material which cannot be reproduced without your explicit permission.
If you write content for the internet, these materials belong to you and are your original works, protected by copyright law. There is one thing to remember though…Upon website copyright infringement, you MUST be able to prove that the works copied
1) Belong to you and
2) You are the original producer of the material.
One good thing about researching possibly copied material today is that, now there is a simple way to check. Websites such as DupeFreePro and Copyscape check the internet to determine whether your materials have been copied. These programs warn a website’s owner of other materials on the internet similar to their own.
A good way to monitor your website copyright material is on a page by page basis. Copyscape allows you to check the entire page or an article within. If your material has been copied, Copyscape returns information on the data copied and which website. This helps to protect your website.
More often than not, the trick is in getting in contact with the owner of the accused website. You should try to contact the owner and let him/her know that your work is being displayed on their site without permission.
In most cases people are happy to remove the duplicate content. Some
don’t even know their site contained plagiarized materials. In
rare
cases it might take a little more work. You might have to
contact the web host (sending formal letters etc.) regarding a website
copyright issues.
If you don’t mind others using your material just ask that the website owner references you on his/her site as the owner of the materials. As long as you are given credit, the exposure may not be such as bad thing.
One final note, although your content is considered website
copyright material there are a few other things that are not. For
example, things such as short phrases, characters, methods, facts,
titles and even slogans, are not considered copyright material.
These
things can however become trademarked but that is a whole other
discussion.
