Copyright and the World Wide Web

If you have a web site already online, or are working on a web site, you should be concerned about copyright law. Why? You'll want to make sure you are aware of your own rights as far as copyright of your site's content goes. You'll also want to ensure that you do not infringe on the copyright of anyone else.

Many people are still falling prey to the misconception that there is no copyright on the world wide web. This couldn't be further from the truth. In the USA there's a law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that states that all web content (text, code, graphics, etc.) is protected the moment it becomes live online without ANY action on the part of the author to protect his/her work.

The ramifications this has on the webmaster is that you cannot troll the web for content or code for your site (of course that violates web etiquette anyway). At first this seems pretty clear. You can't steal articles from an online magazine and print them verbatim on your site. You can't head over to wire image and steal a gallery of pictures and post them on your site. It also means you can't head over to a competitor's site and steal the source code for their site design. Further, you cannot see a competitor's site and ask a web designer to develop a site for you that resembles in every way your competitor's site.

If such concepts are so simple to understand, then why is the web such a wealth of sites cut and pasted from other sites? I've had people steal my source code verbatim and end up using my affiliate links on their sites! It's crazy!

On occasion you may see content at another site that you'd like to use. In that case, look around the site. Some site's provide information about how to license their content. For example, the IMDb provides information on how to license their celebrity and movie database information for your site. In such cases you will pay a usage fee (and agree to other stipulations as well, generally) and obtain a limited legal right to use the copyright material. This does not mean that you own the material, only that you may use it in accordance with the agreement.

In other cases, no link will be provided for licensing information. Here you may try to contact the webmaster and work out some kind of licensing agreement.

If such an agreement cannot be worked out, DO NOT take it upon yourself to use the material anyway. In all cases, we encourage you to retain the services of an attorney who specializes in either Internet law, or Intellectual Property copyright law.

Likewise, you may not use unlicensed software on your web site without violating the DMCA. Make sure you license all code and software that you are using (templates included) as required by their creators. In some cases, the code, software, scripts, or templates may be freeware, or open source. This means you will not have to pay to use them, but you should still read the license and make sure that you are using them in accordance with the author's terms (ie. not distributing them yourself if that is prohibited, etc.).

Finally, place a copyright statement on your own site, both in text visible to your visitors and within your meta tags. Include an email address for those users who are interested in your content to get in touch with you about reprint and licensing rights. Be prepared to meet up with clones of your site in the future. In all cases, we encourage you to consult an attorney along every step of the way. Copyright law is a very serious and difficult to understand road. Expert counsel is invaluable.