Copyright Doubt.

[contactskn 2]

Dear friends I have a doubt about the copy right of any site. We normally with every website we can see the copyright at the bottom of the site. I want to know that whether it is the matter of the site which is copy righted or the design or both. If anybody there who has copy righted his/her site. Please will you be able to provide the details.

Edited November 17, 2009 by contactskn (see edit history)

[mahesh2k 0]

When you post your content on blog and forum, you get copyrighted without any documentations. Your opinion and content on website is copyrighted to you. If you want to take strict measures to avoid scrapers from stopping content stealing from your site then you should consider options like copyscape and copy gator. Both of these copy protection and content verification site are at this work. Copyright for the site content and design applies to entire site design. If you've used free wordpress theme then that theme design goes under GPL even if you modified it. As GPL says future revisions are also comes under GPL. Unless it is creative commons and LGPL, you can't claim modified work as your own. As you're from india, you should check the copy protection steps and policies from sites like pluggd.in where they have article about how to protect your content on web with copyright. Hope i gave some direction to get your answer.

[rvalkass 5]

In the UK (I'm not 100% sure what it's like elsewhere) anything you create is instantly copyright to yourself. Even just a doodle on a sticky note or something is yours, and you don't have to write a copyright statement on it (although it does help). This also applies to things you publish online - both the content of the site and the images and design that make up the site. Due to the fact a lot of people like to release their work under open-source, Creative Commons and other 'free' and 'copyleft' licences, those who want to keep their content to themselves often put a copyright notice on the page.In other countries the copyright notice is a requirement to make something copyright to you, and in other countries there are lengthy applications processes similar to those for patents. If you're unsure and want to keep your content for yourself then check with a lawyer or solicitor specialising in intellectual property.

[inverse_bloom 0]

I guess with copyright laws matters aren't as clear cut as every one would like. Australia is much like the UK in the way it handles copyright, once you have created some form of artistic work it is protected, but it also helps you if you have a copyright statement (much as rvalkass mentioned). However, copyright isn't so clear cut in the fact that you have to "prove" that you are the original creator of a work.The best way (other than search out professional legal assistance) is to research previous copyright law cases pertaining to duplicated web site content.

Edited November 17, 2009 by inverse_bloom (see edit history)

[akira550 0]

yeah every content of your blog and site has a copyright but it's better to register it.. into copyrights companies or sites there are so many paid and free in the internet just try to search for it... just a note.. when a site has a copyright it doesn't mean that you can't get the content but you can... you just have to give the source of where you get it and give credits to the author

[contactskn 2]

Thank you very much dear friends for such an informative and educative response for my query. With the help of this I have got the intial direction regarding copyright of the matters of any site etc. Thanks for the help.

[anwiii 17]

copyright and having it enforced is two very different things. normally, to enforce any copyright infringement, you will have to have a date stamp on at least a copy of your work.

my friend in the rtvf industry used to mail his own scripts to himself. he wouldn't open them because he already knew what they were. he used this method to create a date stamp where the post office would stamp the envelope. if there was any issue on copyright infringement, he would open the envelop in front of the proper authority with the date stamp already imprinted.

to open the sealed envelope when it gets mailed back to him would defeat his purpose as now anything could have been in the envelope and would have defeated the purpose of spending postage for proving copyrights.

owning copyrights to anything means absolutely NOTHING unless you can prove you own the copyrights. again, normally, you need a date stamp either through a copyright office or doing what my friend did. web design and content on one website doesn't prove anything if someone else has the same design and content they stole from you unless you have a date stamp. even posting anything on the web FIRST doesn't prove copyrights because someone could easily steal this stuff offline and publish it before the one who actually owns the copyright publishes it on the web.

copyrights are very tricky and it's always best to get legal advice on these issues.

Thank you very much dear friends for such an informative and educative response for my query. With the help of this I have got the intial direction regarding copyright of the matters of any site etc. Thanks for the help.

[inverse_bloom 0]

Yeah i totally agree with that. There aren't many who will tell it to you like that, to give you an understanding straight away. What a clever idea posting your work through mail in that manner.

Edited November 17, 2009 by inverse_bloom (see edit history)

[kleong 0]

I understand anything you write is copyrighted to you. But when it comes to the a forum like Xisto, who own the copyright to what I have written? Is it the site owner or the poster themselves? I would think it is the site owner itself. Cause a forum is a place whereby you contribute. So the moment, you contributed, it means you have transferred the 'copyright ownership' to the receiver. Correct? Someone please correct me.

Edited November 19, 2009 by kleong (see edit history)

[anwiii 17]

no. far from it....but it also depends what their terms of service is as well. it's always good to know what rights you are releasing when you post.

there have been issues of forum posters who want to delete their account and write to admin to delete all their posts thinking they have the rights to their posts. this is wrong thinking. once posted, they don't have to delete it but you still retain all copyrights. now if someone could prove copyrights and they saw something publically posted by someone else, then they could enforce their copyrights to get the post deleted.

one can take it a step further and sue a company hosting copyright infringements...especially if it can be shown that they were making money off that post.

this is why i believe trap goes to some lengths not to allow copying other peoples work on other websites or other media without the use of the quote tags and only supporting original content.

but it's really hard when you yourself put something on the internet for the whole world to share before you decide it was a mistake and want to undue it all. you can't. you don't have those rights as you chose to share it.

I understand anything you write is copyrighted to you. But when it comes to the a forum like Xisto, who own the copyright to what I have written? Is it the site owner or the poster themselves? I would think it is the site owner itself. Cause a forum is a place whereby you contribute. So the moment, you contributed, it means you have transferred the 'copyright ownership' to the receiver. Correct? Someone please correct me.