How to copyright my website content and images.

Discussion in 'Legal Issues' started by phpworks, Nov 16, 2012.

  1. #1
    Hi

    I just come across a guy copying my website images so I need to stop others to do same.

    Please advice me how to copyright my website content and images.

    Please advice me...
     
    phpworks, Nov 16, 2012 IP
  2. omgcats

    omgcats Member

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    #2
    If these are images that you have created yourself from scratch (a photo you took, a drawing you drew, etc.), then they are automatically subject to copyright the moment that you created them. You don't need to register a copyright. Registering allows you to collect larger damages in court but you will probably not be taking this to court so it's moot. The same is true for your articles.

    Ok so your stuff is already copyrighted, but how to you punish the people who stole it? If you want them to actually pay anything you'll need to take them to court, but that is expensive and probably not worth it. If you just want to get the content taken offline, there are procedures to do this which are established by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). You can send a DMCA takedown notice to his webhost, and they will have to take the pages offline. You can also send a DMCA takedown notice to Google saying which pages on his site contain stolen content and they are required to remove those pages from their index (unless he files a counter-notice).

    And how to you prevent others from copying? Well it's already illegal so there's not much you can do. You can put a copyright message on your website like "all content copyright 2012 My Name." This doesn't do anything legally, but it might deter people from copying. A lot of people have misconceptions about online copyright and don't realize that what they are doing is illegal, so if you add a notice like "Using any photographs without permission is a violation of copyright" it could have some impact. You can also add a watermark to your images.

    One last note: there are certain cases in which it is ok to use copyrighted works which is known as "Fair Use." an example would be if a college professor included one of your photos in a slide in order to critique it as part of a lecture. But this is probably not relevant to your situation.

    I am not a lawyer.
     
    omgcats, Nov 21, 2012 IP
    GrapX2 and phpworks like this.
  3. phpworks

    phpworks Member

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    #3
    Thanks very much omgcats,

    But my worry is in my case
    there are pictures of a machinery which was stolen by changing its original color.
    Does it include in copyright, as I have heard from that person who stolen these images that it is not illegal if I change the color of image and use it.

    What you say.
     
    phpworks, Nov 23, 2012 IP
  4. zoritey87

    zoritey87 Greenhorn

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    #4
    put a water mark on the images. That works!
     
    zoritey87, Nov 24, 2012 IP
  5. Rukbat

    Rukbat Well-Known Member

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    #5
    Changing the color gives the person who changed the color a copyright to the color, but you still retain the copyright to the rest of the image. IOW, no, changing the color is still a violation. In fact, if it went to court, the court would probably consider it an even more egregious violation - it's both a violation of copyright and an attempt to hide that violation. "Oops, I didn't realize that the picture wasn't in the public domain" is stupidity. "I wanted the picture, so I committed fraud" can't be "explained away" as ignorance.
     
    Rukbat, Dec 1, 2012 IP