How to Show Copyright Dates on a Website

Copyright your web creations to protect your ownership rights.

Having copyright protection will insure that your creative endeavors will be properly protected from unauthorized appropriation by others. The act of copyrighting written documents goes back over 300 years in English law and now extends to content on the Internet. The principle behind copyrighting is that unique creations like written words, books, and images belong exclusively to their creators for a lengthy period of time, regardless of whether the item was properly, legally "copyrighted" or not. If you are a website content author or artist, you owe it yourself to copyright and otherwise protect your work.

Instructions

1. Register your work with the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO).

2. Use the citation "Copyright, Year Date, Creator's name" on your website, and place it in the "footer" or bottom margin of each web page on your site. The year you created the content is important and should not be left out. You may use this phrase regardless of whether or not you have actually copyrighted the materials through the USCO. But do not use the copyright symbol (a "c" inside a circle) unless your content has indeed been registered with the USCO. This DIY copyright "mark" is not as legally powerful as a full USCO copyright, but it will often hold up in court in case litigation is necessary.

3. Add the phrase "Any duplication, re-broadcast, re-publication, or other use of content appearing on this website is prohibited without the express written permission of (Your Name)" after the Copyright claim. This statement will help further communicate to others your copyright claim and intention to defend your claim, if necessary.

4. Place a copyright notice, including the date of creation or copyright registrations, under any original artwork, photographs, or videos you produce from original materials for your website. You can place this copyright warning on your site in very small type, but it must be directly adjacent to the artwork covered by the copyright claim.

5. Watermark other artwork especially if you are showing the artwork for the purpose of selling it. Artwork and photo "product samples" that appear on a website and which are fairly large in size and high in resolution are particularly prone to theft for use by others. If your intention is to sell copies of a photograph or an illustration, place a large digital "watermark" with your copyright information over the middle of the item. Place the watermark where it will not be possible to edit the watermark out of the picture with software like Photoshop.

6. List all copyrights for all content on the site under a utility page on your website titled "Credits." This listing should spell out all the copyrights, and their dates of creation, on each individual piece of content or art on the website. A "credits" page is good for websites where many different artists or authors may be contributors and whom may wish to retain their individual claims on their works.

Tips & Warnings

• If you don't want to mar your artwork, there are several software programs available which will watermark your work so that the pictures only are watermarked if the item is "lifted" digitally ("copy" or "save image as...") or if someone tries to print the artwork.

References

• "Learning Web Design: Jennifer Niederst; 2001
• U.S. Copyright Office: Circular 66, Registration of Online Works

Resources

• Watermarking Software