What is a copyright?
"Copyright" literally means the right to copy. In fact, you acquire a copyright for your website content or design, the instant you have built, written-out, sketched or otherwise embodied the contents and design in some format so that it may be perceived by the rest of the world.
In publishing your website design and content to the Internet, you are exposing your copyrights to the most hostile environment ever known in the history of Copyright Law.
Depending on the types of media included in you website design and content, your copyrights may be classified as "Literary Works", "Visual Arts" or "Performing Arts". Rather confusing... but here goes.
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The US Library of Congress defines "Literary Works" as follows: |
Literary works include nondramatic textual works with or without illustrations. They may be published or nonpublished. Computer programs and databases also are considered literary works. Plays, dramas, and screenplays are not in the literary works category (see Performing
Arts page). |
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The US Library of Congress defines "Visual Arts" as follows: |
For copyright purposes, visual arts are original pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, which include two-dimensional and three-dimensional works of fine, graphic, and applied art. |
(examples pertinent to web design)
»Advertisements, commercial prints, labels
»Cartographic works, such as maps, globes, relief models
»Cartoons, comic strips
»Collages
»Drawings, paintings, murals
»Games, puzzles
»Holograms, computer and laser artwork
»Photographs, photomontages
»Record jacket artwork or photography
»Technical drawings, architectural drawings or plans, blueprints, diagrams, mechanical drawings
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The US Library of Congress defines "Performing Arts" as follows: |
Performing arts works are intended to be “performed” directly before an audience or indirectly “by means of any device or process.” |
(examples pertinent to web design)
(1) musical works, including any accompanying words;
(2) dramatic works, such as scripts, including any accompanying music;
(3) pantomimes and choreographic works; and
(4) motion pictures and other audiovisual works.
For further definition of these examples
click here
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Why do I need to protect or register the copyrights on my website content or design?
Piracy is rampant on the Internet, especially when it comes to website design and content. Should your copyrights ever be called into question, problems can arise if you cannot provide credible evidence of when you first created your website content or design... While in theory, you acquire your copyrights the instant you save your work (in some format), in this Internet age, obtaining a credible thrid-party date-stamp should becomes the second thing that you do before publishing any of your work. Read more
Learn how you can use ".ZIP" files to protect entire websites (up to 20 MB each) for around $3 each, with a WorldWideOCR.com SEAL™ file.
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No matter what, your SEAL™ file will always credibly represent the earliest moment in history that your website content or design was in your possession... |
