The following list of SITE GRAPHICS I own the copyrights for. They were either expressly given to me or implied upon me, by the original creators. These graphics are NOT to leave this site. The one's marked with a * can ONLY be used on another site if they are used to link to Spook Central with.
** Although I don't own the copyright for the SITE GRAPHICS listed below, I would like them to be exclusive to my site. This helps insure that my site has an original look. Please respect my wishes and don't use any of this stuff on your website (or where ever else). (A good webmaster respects the wishes of other webmasters.) Thank you. **
For many years I have made part of my living from my writing. I write for magazines, for hire, as a consultant, for my own newsletter, and for my business.
Recently, I have found that a number of people have taken my written materials for their own use without any permission or payment. Of course, the Internet makes it easy -- just download the page -- and who will ever know?
But when you take my written materials without permission or payment, you deprive me of my livelihood. You are, effectively, stealing from me." When you steal writing and host it on your own Web page without payment or permission you violate Federal copyright laws intended to protect writers like me, and place yourself and your business in considerable jeopardy by breaking the law in this open and public fashion.
What does a copyright cover?
Copyright law can be very technical, but, in relation to the Web, it says You cannot publish (which includes publishing on a Web site as a Web page) any work which another has written without his or her explicit permission.
The assembled work of Web pages, specifically including HTML code, is also protected.
A writer doesn't even have to state explicitly that the material is copyrighted. It is automatically protected by copyright laws when it is published in final form.
Words and HTML code can be copyrighted, but ideas can't. If those ideas are put in other words and form, it is not a violation of copyright.
Articles
Another source of theft has been reprinting my articles on a Web site without permission.
Isn't it okay to reprint so long as you tell where you got the article?"
No. If you go to the hardware store and tuck an expensive wrench into your jacket and walk out the door, it isn't enough to tell your friends: "I got this wrench from Joe's Hardware." If you reprint my writing without permission you have stolen it no matter what you tell people. Of course, it is even grosser when people take the article, remove my name, and copyright notice, and replace it with their own. (Oh, yes, a number of people have done that.)
How can you tell if someone takes your articles?
You'd think that a little Web site tucked away in an obscure corner of the Internet won't be noticed. However, Web plagiarism is a relatively simple matter to uncover using any of several Web search engines.
I found dozens of violations using this method:
Then I cut and paste the name and address and URL where I found the copyright violation into a Web page which I put in a password protected directory of my Web site. This enables me to check easily to see if the pages have been removed. It also makes it easy for the violator's Internet Service Provider to see the comparisons, if necessary.
Why enforce your copyright?
If I don't search for copyright violations, my claim to my material tends to be weakened. My own business uniqueness is also diluted, since people can find exactly the same article or service advertised elsewhere.
How do you enforce your copyright?
What should I do if I have violated your copyright?
I require that all Web pages which contain my copyrighted materials be removed from the Internet within 48 hours of notice via e-mail. Unless this is done I go to the next step without further notice. (If you need an extension of time to write your own materials, please call me ASAP to make arrangements.)
Beyond that you could:
Sincerely,
Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
Director, Wilson Internet Services
Editor, Web Marketing Today
How Copyright Works
While browsing on an electronic bulletin board, you come across an interesting article on dog training. Thinking it might be of interest to the members of your dog owners' club, you download it, print it out and reprint it in the next issue of your club's newsletter.
Congratulations -- you've probably just violated federal law.
Don't worry, you won't be hauled off to the federal pen. The law you ran afoul of is copyright law, which gives authors, composers and others who create works of expression certain rights over their creations.
You would probably think about copyright rules if you wanted to republish a chapter of a book, a play or a song you liked. But they're easy to overlook when you're dealing with electronic media. These bits of information fly around so rapidly and can be reproduced so easily that it's hard to remember that someone out there probably owns the right to determine when and how copies are made and used.
All works of original expression have at least one thing in common: they are protected by copyright as soon as they are created and fixed in a tangible medium. For the most part, once an expression is entered into a computer in a form that can be read on screen or routed to a printer, it is considered fixed in a tangible medium, even if it is never printed out or saved to a disk. A copyright notice -- that little © followed by the year and the author's name -- is not required, but is recommended to remind people that the author claims a copyright.
The author of the expression owns the copyright, unless there has been a formal written transfer of that ownership or the expression is created as a work for hire or paid for by an employer. So a person who enters an expression into a computer for other people to see usually owns the copyright on that expression.
What does owning a copyright on an expression mean? Simply, that no one else can copy, distribute, display or adapt that expression without the copyright owner's consent. This consent may be given for free, for a fee or on the condition that an appropriate attribution be given. It is always a good idea, if you send material into cyberspace, to explicitly state the conditions for its use and reproduction.
As a starting point, therefore, you can assume that you control the right to use any expressions that you author and put online. The important corollary is that any expressions you find online are probably controlled by someone else and shouldn't be used without permission.
How Copyright Works
Copyright protects expression, not ideas or facts. For instance, information in a telephone book or a weather summary can be freely used. On the other hand, the expression used in an essay on telephones or a creative explanation of weather systems is protected by copyright even though the underlying data and ideas aren't.
Copyright law doesn't mean that you can never quote something interesting that you find online. The "fair use" rule allows you to use a small portion of an expression to comment on it or for an educational purpose. But if you want to use the expression for commercial gain, the fair use exception probably won't apply unless the portion you use is extremely small in relation to the entire expression.
It's extremely difficult to apply the fair use rule to new forms of expression such as the discussions that take place in "cyberspace" -- for example, on Internet "newsgroups" or the conferences on online services such as America Online and CompuServe. A hundred people may each contribute a few lines to a discussion. If you want to use a big chunk of the conversation, must you get every contributor's permission? Theoretically, yes, because each contributor owns copyright in his or her words. However, since none of the contributions has any significant commercial value by itself, it's hard to see where the copyright owners would be harmed if the entire conversation were used without their individual permissions. Nevertheless, people whose words are used without their permission may be angry about it. It is always better to ask.
One last thing. Copyright is not the only law to be concerned about when launching words onto the information highway. You should also avoid:
You may be wondering why this site even exists. Are you thinking, "What's so important about copyrights?" This page will answer some basic questions about why knowing the basics of copyright law can be important to you.
When anyone creates anything, i.e. writes a story, paints a picture, or designs a website, and puts it into some tangible form outside of their thoughts and imagination, they own the copyright rights to it, even if they haven't registered their work with the U.S. Copyright Office.
What does it mean to "own the copyright?" The copyright owner controls the rights to copy, distribute, make derivatives of (modify), or perform their work. It is illegal for anyone to use or modify their work without their permission.
Copyright is just as important on the web as it is elsewhere. Webmasters need to be extremely careful about what they use on their sites, making sure they have explicit permission to use material they have not created themselves. When in doubt about whether something is free to be taken, always ASK the originator of the material. If one can not find the owner, or can not get a response to requests for permission, it is best to err on the side of caution and not use the material.
In order to secure your copyright rights, the best procedure is to register your work with the U.S. Copyright Office. Registration of your copyright has many advantages and gives you the right to pursue a copyright infringement lawsuit in federal court. That could result in your winning monetary damages and lawyers' fees when you prevail in court. Without the official registration, your legal remedies, while not inconsequential, are more limited, especially in the monetary damages area.
If you decide not to invest the time and money it takes to register your copyright, it is a good idea to at least print out a copy of your work or place an archive of your work on floppy disks, seal it in an envelope addressed to yourself, and then mail the package via certified mail, return receipt requested, to yourself. Do not open the package when you get it back from the post office. What you will have is what some call "the poor man's copyright" registration. Also, be sure to make a detailed list and/or a duplicate of what you put in the package and then file that with your unopened, postmarked envelope. This will be credible evidence for the date of creation of your work. However, only official registration with the copyright office gives you the right to sue for copyright infringement.
Don't put it off, get busy and start securing your rights! Also, be sure you are in the right. Remember, "Don't be in haste to copy and paste."
WHAT CONSTITUTES A COPYRIGHT?
Copyright protects expression. The Copyright Act of 1976 states that the items of expression can include literary, graphic, dramatic, and musical works; pantomimes and choreography; pictorial, and sculptural works; audio-visual works; sound recordings; and architectural works. An original expression is eligible for copyright protection as soon as it is fixed in a tangible form.
Consequently, almost any original expression that is fixed in a tangible form is protected AS SOON AS IT IS EXPRESSED. For example, a graphic created in Corel is protected as soon as the file is saved to disk. My Web page was protected as soon as I stopped typing and saved the .html file. As you can see, most of the items that you are likely to encounter on the net are eligible for copyright protection, including the text of web pages, ASCII text documents, contents of email and Usenet messages, sound files, graphics files, executable computer programs and computer program listings.
Once you put the following statement on your page YOU LEGALLY are protected under the copyright act.
* Copyright © 1997 Your Name Here
* All Rights Reserved
* be sure to have this listed on your page exactly as it appears above or copyright may not be valid!
ANOTHER SUGGESTION
With the copyright laws of the Internet in disarray, to secure rights to your site, print each page before putting it on the Internet, and send the pages certified to yourself and/or get the site on disk and do the same.
Do NOT open the letter when it arrives. It is a time-stamped "proof" it belongs to you and was certified by the U.S. Post Office, an official administration acknowledged world wide. This is commonly known as the "poor man's patent." It will hold up in a court of law. For the cost of $1.52 or so, you have tangible proof.
The above also applies to any musical work, put the music on cassette (disk in the case of midi) and follow the same procedures.
Also, any written matter should be e-mailed to one's self and then printed. The certified letter scenario can follow.
In a court of law, your advesary must prove your charges are false. If the Internet matter is truly yours, there will be no way he can produce a prior dated official copy of your work.
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND
There are several graphics that appear on the web over and over and we've seen them thousands of times (e.g., dripping blood bars, etc.) so we're not talking about graphics such as that or graphics that come from sites like Icon Bazaar.
Something I want to reemphasize is that we all must give people the benefit of the doubt until we've emailed them and gotten their side of the story.
A lot of times friends who know your site will find things and forward them to you, or you "do" ask someone and they say, "sure go ahead" because they have it and have no idea where it came from, etc.
BUT...if the creator of the graphic contacts you and kindly asks you to remove it because of copyright infringement, please do the right thing and comply with their wishes. Most of the time they just want a link back and some recognition for their hard work.
If people continue with this type of lawless pirating and disregard for others feelings, our cherished artists will simply stop working their magic and creating these tantalizing works of art, music and literature. And what a bleak place the web will be then.
Danie Powers
POWERS COURT
PROUD MEMBER OF WEB GUARD