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| Copyright Resources on the Web |
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 | Most intellectual property experts feel that publishing on the Web is no different than publishing in any other medium; all normal copyright issues apply.
Your work is copyrighted as soon as it is "fixed in a medium," which should include saving in the files used to create the images displayed on the Web. Use of another's images or text is forbidden without their prior approval.
Although a somewhat new area, most believe that the Web addresses themselves (links of the form www.ourcompany.com) are just that: addresses, and so not copyrightable. That means that anyone can tell others that your Website exists, but they
cannot copy the material from it without your permission. |
| The one exception to this is works by government agencies. In many countries, works by government agencies are specifically held to be the property of "the public" and may
be reprinted by anyone else. If you are developing a Website for a government agency, check with your community relations group--it's probably true that anything that would be available for public reprint if you printed it in a brochure given to the public,
will also be available for other Websites to use. Note that this applies to full government agencies only, and varies from country to country (in many countries, quasi-public agencies like the post office, for example, ARE allowed to hold copyrights). |
Published
For Free
Does NOT
Mean
FREE USE | The biggest confusion seems to be from those who believe that if something is published for free, as on most Websites, it is then available for anyone else to use. THIS IS NOT TRUE. It may help to think
of the Web as a broadcast media like radio: just because a song is played over the radio doesn't mean the artist gives up their intellectual property rights to it. |
