Websites and Copyright

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  • wooohanetworks Friend
    October 9, 2008 at 1:57 am #134203

    Disclaimer: This article does not provide legal assistance, the author takes no liability for the truth of the content (if the content is right or not, if any part is right or not) and advices everyone to check with a licensed laywer when it comes to legal issues! In easy words: I do not give legal assistance, I am not a lawyer and I am not taking any responsibility for anything I write inhere and what you do with the information I provide inhere, if it is right or wrong, it is your own job to check the current laws that apply to your country etc… This is just a reminder and still is created with the supposed to be true knowledge I have about these laws and I hope anything I write is right! THANKS!

    Websites and Copyright

    Anyone who has a website should know at least the basics about copyrights.

    There is goes, copyright is still not equal to what a copyright can be….or really is!

    Namely the term copyright stands for securing a work of art for example with a copyright using, e.g., the U.S. Trademarks and Copyright Office. One creates art, like a logo or even a complete website and wants this work to be protected from copy under the U.S. laws.

    This procedure can be no hassle, you file some paperwork include the artwork, e.g. the file containing the art or sometimes even a PDF print of the complete website you want to copyright. You enclose the fees due for the copyright and in a matter of weeks your artwork is secured by the law from being copied by others. This is what the real copyright application is.

    Based on this paperwork you receive back, with a seal and a stamp, you can now walk around and file lawsuits against anyone who steals a line from your site?

    No, you can’t do exactly this, when you e.g. copyright a website you have to enclose the current content that you want to have protected, like mentioned in form of a PDF or also via the source code of the site, one of both. Now when you today send in one of those and tomorrow you change some content, add a new article, the copyright for that what you add in addition is not part of the registration from yesterday!

    So, to simply register only the logo and some other artwork part of the website, some you do not change frequently, definitely makes more sense.

    But, when you use, e.g., royalty free pictures, ones you purchase online etc., you are not eligible to register those as your artwork or as a part of the copyrighted material you register.

    As long you create all that on your own, like with Photoshop etc., you can. Now when you did so, the C Copyright gains legal weight and is not just a “hey, here, C copyrighted, pal…but really not, sorry, head on…” but a sign that allows you to really protect and enforce the rights for your own artwork.

    Note: There is also a term that says “Any previously copyrighted material, when it is too obscured from it’s original, can be used for any given legal purpose”. Legal purpose means, legal purpose, one has to check if it is still legal to obscure a copyrighted picture, make a logo from it and wants to copyright it… It may be legal but sometimes it is not. This should always be done with the fitting sense and not “Will work, will nobody see, goofy…”

    When you, e.g., use a picture of a model that is really copyrighted and obscure it so much with Filters and whatever you can that one can’t see that is what once the copyrighted original, you can use this a part of a logo without having to fear the copyright law. 😉

    That is doing the real copyright! This is not to be confused with a Trademark registration, the known TM can only be added to a slogan when you also filed this “very expensive” Trademark registration and you will also only be able to register something others haven’t already registered before you. You can also not copyright a logo you made with the Coca-Cola Font and the Pepsi Dot and say, this is your artwork, I want a copyright. Your artwork must stand alone for itself and shall not come close to existing copyrighted materials or even Trademarked Materials.

    Also when one sees a lot of slogans containing the TM, it is not said that the TM setter is truly owning the Trademark for this and is only doing it like the mass of website owners with their C Copyright on their websites. Whether wanting to impress others with nothing that has real legal weight, wants to look like a heavy business entity or even something else, that it is there on any site, so I leave it there and it looks good.

    These cases of copyright are also called copyright and also when some online sources tell the people they have the natural right of protecting work of art they made or have on their websites it never truly secures them but is more something imaginary, to feed the mind alone with water and air, building on the mercy and humanism of the judges.

    So, what applies there? There applies a sort of copyright which is still not a real copyright unless you filed it e.g. with the U.S. Trademark and Copyright office but only a “please do not copy from my website, maybe my lawyers can still enforce something also when I am not legally and to a 100% owning the copyright on my website’s material….”

    Here is one article from another website, and also this is, when the owner would have a real copyright, a fraud, but as whether people are encouring others to spread the information on the internet, do not care or have no real copyright, you can do what you want with it but in some cases when the author starts whining too much and the lawyers are fighters, the judge may say:

    “Remove the content from your side, the gentleman has not allowed you to copy it!”

    This is still like a lawbreaker, as with the next higher court, the judges may say:

    “The gentleman has no copyright and you never were really stealing anything!”

    And may not even add something like “Please stop!” but also not “Head on!”….:p

    This shall not encourage anyone to act that way, but knowledge is the key to that mystery too.

    So, from one point of sight, I would not take all of this stuff from Cranfield really serious, as like mentioned, it is about what court you file a lawsuit with and who really needs something that only makes one dream that one has the god given right on really only unprotected material.

    From another point of view, I take it serious as it shows me I have really no right on unprotected artwork when I have not filed a copyright registration!

    ……

    http://www.cranfieldlibrary.cranfield.ac.uk/library/help_information_guides/copyright_guidelines/copyright_in_practice/copyright_in_websites

    All material published on websites is subject to copyright, and the same basic principles apply. However, since there is no regulation of the web, and no identifiable body of authors, there is no licence to permit educational use of material found on websites.

    Many websites will include a section detailing what can and cannot be done with material contained within them, and in some cases this may actually permit more than would be permitted under the terms of fair dealing. Otherwise, it is sensible to apply the rules of fair dealing; downloading for personal use is usually perfectly acceptable, use of images for personal use (provided that they are not subsequently included in another website or printed publication) and for examinations would be acceptable, but images and substantial portions of text should not be incorporated into any other publication, either print or electronic, without permission, and without the appropriate acknowledgement.

    Logos and graphics count as artistic works, and the ease of copying them from the originating site to another webpage or document should not be mistaken for permission. This is particularly the case with logos, as the appearance of an organisation’s logo in another website or document could be interpreted as endorsement by that organisation, and would be an infringement both of the copyright in the artistic work, and of the owner?s right not to have something wrongly attributed to them.

    It is also possible to claim copyright in a domain name, because of the ease of misleading people by creating websites with domain names similar to existing ones.

    Care should also be taken when creating links from one website to another, as it is possible to infringe copyright simply by creating links. Ideally, links should go to a site’s homepage, so that it is clear that the linked information is not the property of the originating site. If this is not possible, however, a link to a page deeper within the site should usually be acceptable, provided that it is still clear to the reader that they are leaving one site and entering another.

    ……….

    But all that, sections that explain what one can use and what not will at some point have no legal weight at all, the higher the court, the more the real laws gain weight and on the scale of justitia only the real copyright and it’s legal weight can set the scale to even with the weight of the laws on the other side of the scale.

    ….as you only use the personal right to say so but there is not the case of real copyrighted content one is not allowed to copy under any circumstance.

    When you really need more advice, now want to remove the C from your websites or file a real copyright, ask a good lawyer first, a lot of lawyers also create the CPanic, tell the world to file copyrights like hosts tell to register domains in a hurry as in the next moment the desired domain name could be gone…;)

    Now some may want to study and become lawyers, why not, interesting work!

    Thanks and hope it helps… Check the disclaimer on top of the article when you haven’t done so already!

    Tommorows Topic: Cooking with Wooohan Etworks – Pizza

    1 user says Thank You to wooohanetworks for this useful post

    1. shertmann
    mj1256 Friend
    October 9, 2008 at 4:17 am #274372

    good job

    also, many people think registering a domain name for a business is the same is trademarking the buiness or even the same as incorporating, and owning a domian name for your business offers your business no protection at all.

    also, for another perspective.

    In the US and around the world community and social sites are getting nailed for the copyright infridgements of their members and site users. Here is the protections for that.

    You must in the usa have a designated copyright agent and then declare in your terms of service that you are operating as an ISP or OSP. That you do not own any content, that the poster is solely responsible for posted content and that your just providing a vehicle to facilitate the posting and sharing of that posted content.

    more info here
    OCILLA ACT

    and the registration form, send $80.00 USD and you are protected from your communities copyright violations
    Fill Out Form

    the you need some text for your terms of service which spells out the rules for copyright violations

    Member Content Posted On The Website
    You are solely responsible for the content that you publish or display on Website, or transmit to other Members (collectively the “Member Content”). You agree that YourDomain.com may and will review and delete or remove any Member Content that in its sole judgment violates this Agreement or which might be offensive, illegal, or that might violate the rights, harm, or threaten the safety of Members or others. YourDomain.com assumes no responsibility for the Member Content, no obligation to modify or remove any inappropriate Member Content, and no responsibility for the conduct of the Member submitting any such Member Content. By posting Member Content to any part of the Website, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant to YourDomain.com an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid-up, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, perform, edit, add to, display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such information and content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such information and content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. This license will terminate at the time you remove such Member Content from the Website. All posted and uploaded content of any kind remain the property of the member who submitted said content. YourDomain.com acts as the Online Service Provider as set force on the terms of the DMCA and OCILLA copyright acts. YourDomain.com does not pre-approve member content and may not be aware of copyright infringement until notified. On notification, YourDomain.com claims Safe Harbor and will follow procedures set forth per the terms of the DMCA and OCILLA copyright acts.

    and

    6. Copyright Infringement Notification
    If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide the YourDomain.com Copyright Agent the following information required by the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. ¤ 512:
    A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is
    allegedly infringed.
    Identification of the copyright work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single
    online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.
    Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is
    to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the
    material.
    Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact the complaining party.
    A statement that the complaining party has a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is
    not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
    A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining
    party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
    Contact the Designated Copyright Agent with details of the claimed infringement and a Takedown Notice. The YourDomain.com Copyright Agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement on or regarding this site can be reached by writing to:

    YourDomain.com Copyright Agent
    Copyright Infringement Notification
    Attn: John A. Doe
    Address: 261 South Main Street – #186
    Anytown, CT 66666

    The license you grant to YourDomain.com.com is non-exclusive (meaning you are free to license your Content to anyone else in addition to YourDomain.com.com), fully-paid and royalty-free (meaning that YourDomain.com is not required to pay you for the use of the Content that you post), sub licensable (so that YourDomain.com is able to use its affiliates and subcontractors such as Internet content delivery networks to provide and distribute YourDomain.com Member Content), and worldwide (because the Internet and YourDomain.com is global in reach). This license will terminate at the time you remove your Content from the YourDomain.com Website. The license does not grant YourDomain.com the right to sell your Content. The license grants YourDomain.com the right to distribute your Content outside of the YourDomain.com Website, via search engine indexing, RSS feeds and copied links.

    You, the user, agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing any person by reason of any Content posted by you to or through the YourDomain.com Website.

    The YourDomain.com Website contains Content of Users and other YourDomain.com licensors. Except for Content posted by you, you may not copy, modify, translate, publish, broadcast, transmit, distribute, perform, display, or sell any content appearing on or through the YourDomain.com Website.

    do this and you are covered, and i claim the same disclaimer that was used when this thread was started.

    2 users say Thank You to mj1256 for this useful post

    1. wooohanetworks
    2. shertmann
    wooohanetworks Friend
    October 9, 2008 at 1:54 pm #274432

    Disclaimer: This article does not provide legal assistance, the author takes no liability for the truth of the content (if the content is right or not, if any part is right or not) and advices everyone to check with a licensed laywer when it comes to legal issues! In easy words: I do not give legal assistance, I am not a lawyer and I am not taking any responsibility for anything I write inhere and what you do with the information I provide inhere, if it is right or wrong, it is your own job to check the current laws that apply to your country etc… This is just a reminder and still is created with the supposed to be true knowledge I have about these laws and I hope anything I write is right! THANKS!

    Thanks and same to you, this information is very much useful with the example that one sees how YT gets stuck in lawsuits. By means, the whole terms and conditions of a site have to be modified and often the modification of such is illegal itself!

    So, like you explain in detail, registering a site with the appropriate institutions can and will secure one from cases that will most likely force any smaller site to close forever and the operators to be stuck in problems forever.

    As third parties rather like to address any issue to the site operators directly and will not often address a member for copyright infringement, this step is a must.

    What now will be interesting for a lot of members and readers is the “local / non-local issue”. When I want to start on online community and want to be secured under the laws of the U.S.A., I also can register a For or Non Profit Corporation in the U.S.A. when I am not a Resident or Citizen of the U.S.A.. One can open a corporation or organization online and never has to be present in the U.S.A. for conducting the business. Here also applies, always dig through some more than one source for this and rather use the large companies that also offer trademark and copyright registration as a service, one example is http://www.mycorporation.com and http://www.companiesinc.com.

    To take this step, to maybe pay a few hundred dollars at time of start to avoid the big whining later, is from my point of view a professional must-be-done. Also think about the adsense income and other income sources when operating a social networking site for example, the few hundred dollars to secure the site will one make in a matter of time. And also to set you free from any personal liability, as with a corporation you are not hold liable for anything as an individual, the corporation can be sued but not you personally, the money on business accounts maybe claimed by third parties but not the money you have in your personal accounts, your home, your car etc.. The exception is as always criminal conduct with the corporation, when one willingly conducts crimeful business with the corporation and abuses these corporate laws that there is no personal liability you still are commiting crimes and will most likely also be hold personally liable for the misconduct done with the corporation or non profit organization. But this is another topic and will rarely be in the media until the big con artists are caught after years they thought they won’t be ever.

    Every year at least one other church in the U.S.A. is gaining public attention due prosecutors expose fraudulent activities of the church operators, last year was there one case of a church commiting mortgage frauds in relatively horrendous amounts, they literally stole money from the banks without wearing ski masks and holding no guns in their hands, just “with the power of god”.
    :):((

    2 users say Thank You to wooohanetworks for this useful post

    1. mj1256
    2. shertmann
    wooohanetworks Friend
    October 9, 2008 at 2:56 pm #274437

    Disclaimer: This article does not provide legal assistance, the author takes no liability for the truth of the content (if the content is right or not, if any part is right or not) and advices everyone to check with a licensed laywer when it comes to legal issues! In easy words: I do not give legal assistance, I am not a lawyer and I am not taking any responsibility for anything I write inhere and what you do with the information I provide inhere, if it is right or wrong, it is your own job to check the current laws that apply to your country etc… This is just a reminder and still is created with the supposed to be true knowledge I have about these laws and I hope anything I write is right! THANKS!

    Important for the “Domainname.com” issue is that there is a difference between registering a company like Domainname.com, inc. or Domainname, inc.

    When your business is older than the domain name you register you have probably a right on the name and the domain name. While others say, also when you registered the domain name before a new company opened with the name of the domain name you have no right to keep the domain name or to be paid something for the domainname when you do not operate something on that domainname what let’s the court see that a ownership change may not be fair and balanced. The dream is over, the dream of getting millions one day, as one has a domainname that some larger players want is over. Whether they will enforce the domain with the laws or they will simply use another domainname and you sill sit there, still dreaming of quick hustled wealth in the huge and same tiny domain industry..:(( No one will really pay a buck more for a domain than needed or will use the laws to get it, honestly….

    Some instances will see the company name “Wallahallala.com, inc.” not equal to “Wallahallala, inc.”, meaning when you register a trademark for the your company called “Wallahallala.com, inc.” it may not give you the right to enforce something against “Wallahallala.TV, inc.”, especially when both companies are whether registered in another state of the U.S.A. or even another country… Different will be the case when you register a shell company, a company that really does no business, just to get a domainname, like you hate the owner of a domain who has a site you compete with and now think you can get the domain from him or her or them with simply filing a shell company to just get the same from him. This will mostly not work out and also the intention to now ‘”really really” make something with that company you filed and “really really” want the domain name in a honorable way…. I would forget that, this can be seen through too easy.

    For example, MySpace.com was founded by a guy from the U.S.A., who wanted to bring the bands he promoted, I think so, regarding Wikipedia information and surely also other sources will provide the same information, more attention via the internet. So years later, Rupert Murdoch purchased MySpace.com for a lot of money and now can do what he wants, the founder is president or whatever positon he claims and the business runs good.

    Now, MySpace.com became bigger and bigger so as the second largest domainregistry for CC-TLD, the Denic in Germany, gives out the domain ending “dot DE” and some small company from Germany that registered the name years ago, was set into the postion to hold a domainname that MySpace.com wants to use for their german MySpacesite, MySpace.de.

    Mostly this is said be a case where the domain holder has struck gold and will gain millions of dollars for selling the domain name to, e.g., MySpace.com!

    But, the international laws also say, that a company who owns the name trademark for the domain name or company name even without the domain ending, like .com or .de, has every right to be handed out the foreign domain name (maybe as along there will be a same equal site with that domain like with the main domain) as the trademark holder, in this case MySpace.com shall get MySpace.de for free.

    Now, the media said, millions of dollars may go to the small german company that owned the .de domain name… The company itself and MySpace.com kept mouths shut and so no one really knows if they ever paid / were paid for the domain. Sometimes in business, people make a quiet deal, like “I do not want to let you sit here as the looser, but you have to give me the domain name for free, so let’s just let the people there think you may have gotten millions from me also when you just handed out the domain by the oders of the court that administers the domains worldwide, the commission for that…”

    I think, as a lot of people register names only with the intention to secure rights they do not have, dream of that a big corp comes around and pays a lot for the domain one registered, in some cases even fraudulently, as in some cases it is really a fraud when doing so.

    When your name is Miller and you register Miller.com, Miller, inc., the beer company has the right to get the name from you without paying something to you, period.

    This is how it is today, maybe one decade ago, it was different, people were really paid a million for having registered a domain name a company now wants to use, but, the case was there mostly that the people did not register with the intention to sell it one day for a lot of money, but for so and really did so and as the universe is fair, they received their share and today, with all the pseudo smart fortune hunters, the fairness says to hand out the domain name to the party or person who really needs it, deserves it, does something with it and has not just a parked domain site online or a custom “This site will be up soon, i promise!” on their servers, The whole deal must nowadays make sense. And when you think they can’t calculate on that you one day forget to renew the domain for example or lose interest in the name, they buy it then, panic does not rule this business, but wise calculation.

    Sometimes, when it is bringing the company something back, like a huge media hype about the newest domain deal brings more millions than the purchase of the domain name from you itself, than they do it, when that is not realistic, than not…

    Sad, great, both of them… it is up to you! Please excuse any typos if there are some, hard to write into that little window here…Thanks!

    2 users say Thank You to wooohanetworks for this useful post

    1. mj1256
    2. shertmann
    wooohanetworks Friend
    October 9, 2008 at 4:21 pm #274446

    Example for copyright infringement:

    Anyone knowing the U.S. Retailer “Target”?

    This store chains uses a logo that is very close to the logo symbol of JA Barite. When you now keep that logo and you are an online store with good sales and actively market your shop with this logo for the people in the U.S. to identify this with your store, Target can come and say that you infringe their copyright and trademark, the Target logo.

    This is not taken from afar, as long you do not do very local business only and are not in another business than target like you do not just promote your lumberjack business with the JA Barite and it’s logo, may Target really come with their Lawyers to you.

    Thanks!

    1 user says Thank You to wooohanetworks for this useful post

    1. shertmann
    shertmann Friend
    October 9, 2008 at 5:39 pm #274461

    what a great information i going to translate it to spanish and include it as content for my customers in my site

    1 user says Thank You to shertmann for this useful post

    1. wooohanetworks
    wooohanetworks Friend
    October 9, 2008 at 5:46 pm #274462

    <em>@shertmann 84774 wrote:</em><blockquote>what a great information i going to translate it to spanish and include it as content for my customers in my site</blockquote>

    “I grant you with the right to do so, for mj’s content, he has too…”;)

    <em>@shertmann 84808 wrote:</em><blockquote>thanks to the both this information is very useful</blockquote>

    I really hope anyone and everyone can understand anything and everything, as this topic can be very complicating.

    Thanks for the feedback! 😎

    shertmann Friend
    October 9, 2008 at 8:23 pm #274486

    thanks to the both this information is very useful

    well does not matter the complicating that is part of the job. do the things that nobody else understands. :laugh::laugh::laugh:

    1 user says Thank You to shertmann for this useful post

    1. wooohanetworks
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