Copyright Laws

Copyright law is a means of securing legal protection of your ownership of a publication or another type of intellectual property, such as a website or a blog.

What most do not know is that anything posted online on the Internet is still considered “published” work and are therefore still qualified for copyright protection.  So if you think that your works can be made public to the online community, it is important that you know copy laws internet before considering putting up your works online.

There are thousands of internet users who want anything that is free and downloadable for their own personal agenda, so it’s best that you know what to do to be able to exercise your rights with regards to copyrighting on the internet.  Remember that no matter what, a site owner, author, director, or even an artist deserves to give permission to people who wish to use their works for other reasons such as redistribution or personal use for school or work.

So how can a website owner enforce their authority over ownership on the internet? An actual copyright law that enforces copyright laws internet is known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.  This act is designed to primarily limit the liability of ISPs or Internet Service Providers due to copyright infringements that their subscribers experience while using the company’s systems and networks.

It was also enacted in order to both preserve the rights of those who rightfully have ownership of works posted on the internet and to immune ISPs from possible accusations and liabilities on their part for such violations.  So if ever you encounter an instance or situation where any of your works were taken, reposted, or redistributed without your sole permission, you can write a DMCA letter to the internet user’s ISP server who made the offense as well as to search engines like Google or Yahoo.

There are websites all over the World Wide Web that provide good advice as well for people who need to know about copyright laws and the internet, so if you think you need more information about this all you have to do is search through Google and Yahoo.  You’ll stumble upon thousands of websites such as this one that will provide you with tips and step-by-step instructions on what to do when faced with a situation involving copyright infringement.

4 Steps to Combat Website Plagiarism

Publishing your website can be one of the most exciting times for a business owner. After all of your hard work and persistence, the whole world now has access to your products or services. You have either paid hundreds of dollars to have someone write your site content for you, or you have put your heart and soul (not to mention hour upon hour of hard work) into creating content of which you can be proud. In either case, you’ve invested time and/or money into your website copy. Now that it is out there for the whole world to see, it may be a target for all kinds of unscrupulous individuals.

Copyright infringement is a very common occurrence on the World Wide Web. How do you protect yourself? And, what can you do if someone steals your content?

It’s important for you to know that anything you have written is copyrighted. You can register a copyright, but you don’t need to in order for it to be illegal for someone to copy or reproduce your work without your permission. Any written text, painting, drawing, musical composition, photograph or computer program, be they published or not is protected by copyright law. Unfortunately, just because your work is copyrighted doesn’t mean it is safe. Some individuals don’t know that copyright laws apply to the internet, and others simply don’t care.

With millions of websites out there, it’s difficult to know if your website has been targeted by thieves. A great tool to use in the protection of your website content is www.copyscape.com. Simply enter your website URL and it will scan the web for you. This is a free service, but if you have been a frequent victim of copyright infringement, you might want to consider their paid service, which automatically scans the web regularly for any duplicates of your content.

What do you do if you are one of the unfortunate victims of copyright infringement? How can you deal with the offender and avoid the high cost of litigation? The following are some simple steps that you can take to ensure that the infringer removes your material from their website.

1. Contact the offender. You can usually visit the contact page of the offender’s website to obtain their contact information. If for some reason you can’t find their coordinates that way, you can perform a search for who is to find many sites that can provide information about the website owner by simply entering their URL. The website owner’s contact information should be posted here, but if not, their website host will be and you should contact them. Keep your first contact civil. Calling or emailing the responsible individual with a stern, yet professional demeanor will be much more effective than yelling or name calling. Remember that the owner of the site isn’t necessarily the writer, and if they are, then being nasty may not have the desired effect and in fact may create more problems for you in the long run.

2. Send a cease and desist order. If your initial contact didn’t get the desired results, your next step should be to send a cease and desist order. You do not need to hire a lawyer to create one for you. A simple search for cease and desist order templates should give you an order that can be altered to meet your needs. Send one copy by email and one copy by registered mail and make it look as official as possible. Include a date by which the material should be removed. You want the offender to know that you mean business.

3. If action is still not taken, send a cease and desist order to the offending party’s web host. Again, the host information is available by performing a search for who is. The majority of hosts will take action by temporarily removing the offender’s site until the copied material is removed.

4. The situation should be resolved at step 3, but one more step that can be taken is to notify search engines of the infringement. Performing a search for the DMCA or Digital Millennium Copyright Act policies for each search engine will provide the information you need to contact each of them in order to request that the offender’s website be removed.

Finally, it’s always advisable to protect yourself by keeping records of the dates your content was placed on your site. This ensures that the other party can be proven wrong it they claim to have posted their content first.

Placing your website and it’s content on the internet for the world to see is a proud moment. It’s nearly impossible for you to be able to prevent the theft of its content, but the next best thing is knowing what to do if it does happen.

What most do not know is that anything posted online on the Internet is still considered “published” work and are therefore still qualified for copyright protection.  So if you think that your works can be made public to the online community, it is important that you know copy laws internet before considering putting up your works online. There are thousands of internet users who want anything that is free and downloadable for their own personal agenda, so it’s best that you know what to do to be able to exercise your rights with regards to copyrighting on the internet.  Remember that no matter what, a site owner, author, director, or even an artist deserves to give permission to people who wish to use their works for other reasons such as redistribution or personal use for school or work.

So exactly does one enforce their authority over their ownership on the internet?  An actual copyright law that enforces copyright laws internet is known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.  This act is designed to primarily limit the liability of ISPs or Internet Service Providers due to copyright infringements that their subscribers experience while using the company’s systems and networks.  It was also enacted in order to both preserve the rights of those who rightfully have ownership of works posted on the internet and to immune ISPs from possible accusations and liabilities on their part for such violations.  So if ever you encounter an instance or situation where any of your works were taken, reposted, or redistributed without your sole permission, you can write a DMCA letter to the internet user’s ISP server who made the offense as well as to search engines like Google or Yahoo.

There are websites all over the World Wide Web that provide good advice as well for people who need to know about copyright laws and the internet, so if you think you need more information about this all you have to do is search through Google and Yahoo.  You’ll stumble upon thousands of websites such as this one that will provide you with tips and step-by-step instructions on what to do when faced with a situation involving copyright infringement.