Copyright on the Internet
Is my site protected?Can I use other people's material?
Should I have a copyright notice on my website?
What if someone is stealing my content?
Is my site protected?
Copyright does not need to be claimed; in most situations, it automatically exists. Therefore, your website - from style, to contents, to images - should be protected. This is explained on the government's IPO website, which says:"So long as you have created a work that qualifies for copyright protection, that is it falls into one of the categories of material protected by copyright, you will have copyright protection without having to do anything to establish this. It is a requirement of various international conventions on copyright that copyright should be automatic with no need to register."
Regarding copyright on the Internet, it states:
"Copyright applies to computing and the internet in the same way as material in other media. For example, any photographs you place on the internet will be protected in the same way as other artistic works; any original written work will be protected as a literary work, and so on."
Therefore, you can consider that your website is protected.
Can I use other people's material?
Obviously, it goes without saying that you may not use material from other websites without explicit permission. There are some exceptions made for uses in an educational setting (see this page from Cambridge University) but if you aren't already aware of them, they probably don't apply to you!The claim that anything published on the Internet can be copied is simply not true. Only material which the owner has said may be used by anyone for any purpose can be copied legally, or if copyright has expired and the data is now in the public domain.
This means that if you wish to use someone else's content or images you must have their permission. I will assume that any content you supply to me for your website is owned by you, or that you have the right to use it. However, if I detect that the proposed material for your website is subject to copyright, I will flag this for your attention.
Copyright is also the reason why I will not copy another website's style - although it is helpful for me to see examples of websites you think hit the right note, I will always create your site from scratch, and make it unique.
Should I have a copyright notice on my website?
As for whether you need to have a copyright notice on your site, the answer is that you don't, but it can always be a helpful reminder. It is not necessary in order to protect your content, but a notice will let others know the owner and the year of publication, so they know who to approach if they want to seek permission to use it.However in my experience people who wish to steal your content will claim that they didn't realise they cannot do so - whether this is true or not - regardless of any copyright notice you may display.
What if someone is stealing my content?
There are a couple of protections you can put in place. If you have a problem with people using your content on other websites, you can put a notice on your site stating that you will charge a fee for use of your images - and then do so. I do this on my personal website (charging NUJ freelance rates, plus 10%) and it has significantly reduced the stealing - plus I have been able to make money on a few of my pictures!Secondly, you can prevent people linking to images that are hosted on your website by adding a particular file to your website (an .htaccess file) configured to redirect external sites to a smaller image; mine says "Stolen from...") However, this only protects you where other people are linking to the image on your site; it can't physically stop them making a copy and hosting it themselves.
If your content is being reproduced on another website, complain to that website's hosting provider. Most companies prohibit this and you should be able to get the offending pages removed.
However, if your content is being used offline, and your complaints go unheard, you may need to employ the services of a lawyer in order to pursue matters. Copyright infringement is a civil matter, and you can sue for damages.
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