Hi everyone, a simple question really. i have a website and i am soon going to update it putting images of other peoples art on, but i want to make sure it is copyrighted. So how do i copyright my site and how much will it cost. Seriously i dont have a clue about copyrighting so can some explain how i do it please. many thanks jhill
Where abouts in the world are you? In many places Copyright exists as soon as you create a work. In some (e.g. USA) there is also an optional step of 'registering' your Copyright which is very useful should you ever need to enforce your rights. If you are using other peoples work, you will also need to ensure you get their permission to use their images (or you would breach their Copyright).
i live in the united kingdom and i will have the permission to use the other people images. So do i need to register and will i need to wright all the terms and conditions info like you see on most sites?
No, you should not need to do anything, your work will automaticly be copyrighted unless you(the copyright holder) say something less. Read more about it here: http en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
As far as my knowledge is concerned.. you just need to write "Copyrighted" in you work.. That makes it coprighted.
Not to bust bubbles, but doing a copy right is one thing. Going after somebody who steals it is another. In the US let's say I steal your work and I put it on my site. You find out about it and send me a nasty letter telling me to remove it. (you have to do this first, before you can do anything else) If you have an attorney write the letter, that will cost you so much. Now take that letter cost about 500 times. What I'm telling you is going after somebody who rips off copy right stuff is a civil problem not a state nor federal law. Which means the cost comes out of your pocket. To help stop this I would put watermarks across the middle of the work you don't want rip off. It will deter a lot of people. Also ask a model site what they do. Professional models get ripped off every day of the week.
The UK has no formal copyright registration system. There are companies that take certain steps so that you have evidence the work is yours if you get taken to court, but many of these companies have little knowledge of the law and are just trying to make money from you. In the UK the work is copyrighted as soon as it is created.
You just need to write copyright somewhere on the page, and have Legal / Copyright Info link at the bottom that links to your full disclaimer. I would reccomend using a different (but similar) sites copyright notice with the variables changed over to yours instead of a completely new copyright agreement. But it doesn't matter, as you can't prevent copyright abuse anyway : Art is jpeg / image files... you can't search google for them if somebody steals your images basically the chances of you randomly stumbling on their site where your images are are very very low. NO way exists of protecting images, you can waste your time with html code encryptor's - but this will just irritate regular users & do nothing to prevent people determined to taking your stuff as you can just use file > save page as in opera browser. If you find someone sharing your images and tell your lawyer to sue the person, he/she will send a c&d notice. If the person deletes the artwork and they don't reupload that image their is nothing you can do. You could try to sue them for loss of earnings etc but this is just a waste of time.
Another thing you can do to slow down a good percentage of people taking things is make the pages/photo's in flash. You can't right click flash. (well, nothing happens) It will stop a lot of people, but a designer could still take it with the correct programs. Use water marks
What a lot of people do, and I am one, is to put it in the footer of your website e.g. copyright m.mouse 2008
Nope, I already copyrighted the word "copyright". And the number "2008". So you'll have to come up with something else. P.S. You owe me $20.