Copyright and your website
As mentioned in the previous article, copyright is automatic on any original creative work. However, some countries do require you to mark your work as copyrighted material to assert this right so it is good practice to include a copyright notice on your website. Not only does this alert people to the fact that copyright exists on the material, but also states who owns it and acts as a deterrent to anyone wishing to copy it. Both text and proprietary images should include copyright notices.
Text – each page of your website should contain a copyright notice and comprise the word Copyright to cover the countries which do not accept the symbol; the copyright symbol ©; the date of creation or a span of dates from creation to last revision; the copyright owner’s name. For our website this gives us:
Copyright © 2007-9 Clarihon Web Services
You will often see All rights reserved following the copyright notice as a simple way to cover all material from being copied. If there are certain parts of your site you are happy for others to copy then make this clear in your copyright notice.
Images – for any proprietary images the best way to add a copyright notice is through the imaging software you use as it makes them harder to remove. You may want to add a watermark if your images are especially valuable.
The flip side to this is to make sure that any material – images or text – that you use on your website is original or you have obtained the necessary permissions to use it from the rightful owner.
If your website does contain particularly valuable material or if a copy of some or all of your website would prove very detrimental to your business, then it is possible to register your website. In the event of a dispute over ownership, registration will provide irrefutable evidence of ownership and proof of copyright.
More information about registration is available from the UK Copyright Service website.
