Copyright Notice
Since 1989, there is no longer a legal requirement for a copyright notice. However, placing a copyright notice on your work puts the world on notice that you are claiming ownership. This prevents anyone from copying your work and claiming they are an "innocent infringer"; that they didn't know the work was protected.
A proper copyright notice consists of the following elements:
- The © symbol (© in HTML code).
- The first year of publication.
- The copyright owner's name.
The complete notice to be placed on copyrighted works should look like this:
Copyright © 2006 COPYRIGHT OWNERS NAME. All rights reserved.
Although not legally required, it is recommended that both the term "Copyright" and the "©" symbol be used for works displayed online. This is because some web browsers may not be able to display the "c-in-a-circle" symbol that is required for international protection in some countries. The date indicated should be the year of publication.
In most instances, the copyright notice should appear on the last page of multi-page documents, or at the bottom of single-page documents. For a website it should appear at the bottom of each web page.
- Introduction
- Online Copyrights
- Websites and Online Content
- Website Updates
- Who Owns Your Website?
- Exclusive Rights
- Benefits of Copyright Registration
- Domain Names
- Source Code
- Software
- Computer Programs
- Automated Databases
- Who Can Register
- Work Made for Hire
- Copyright Notice
- Copyright Infringement
- Copying a Website
- Deep Linking
- Framing
- Digital Millennium Copyright Act
- Non-Infringing Use
- Copyright Deposit or Date Stamp
