Tuesday, October 13, 2009

How to copyright a website

With the amount of plagiarism on the Internet by people looking to make revenue from a website without putting any effort into it, plenty of webmasters and bloggers are rightfully interested in knowing how to give their blog copyright protection, and how to enforce that copyright.

Many people believe that they need to file a copyright registration or write "Copyright [insert webmaster's name] 2009" somewhere on the page in order to have an enforceable copyright over their content, but in reality a person who wants to have copyright protection over something they write must simply, well, write it.

Writing "Copyright ____ 2009" is often done with creative works not because it's necessary to establish a copyright, but because it's helpful in proving who created a certain work first, in the event that one person plagiarizes another. Registering a copyright with the government is similarly unnecessary, but, depending on the country, usually creates a presumption of ownership over the copyrighted material that must be disproven in court.

In short, if you are worried about how to copyright something, just write it!


RELATED LINKS (Open in new window)

Proving a website copyright
What is and is not copyrighted

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