August 6th, 2009 at 12:40pm
Under copyright protection
It is simply not possible to prevent someone from copying your website images. If someone is skilled and determined there’s no way to stop them from abusing your website and your content. But there’s still light in the end of the tunnel. You can use some semi-sophisticated techniques to limit the amount of people that can copy your website’s images. Keep reading.
The first method I recommend is called digital image watermarking. A watermark can be visible or can be invisibly embedded into the pixels of an image. There are companies like Digimarc offering digital watermarking services and providing a digital identity for any media object, thus protecting it from stealing. But these systems are not fool proof, they have serious weaknesses and they are costly.
Another method would be to hide your original image behind a transparent GIF using CSS style sheets. If someone right clicks the image and selects to save it, it will only save the transparent GIF, not the original image. Similarly, you can insert the image as a table background. But in both cases a visitor can always make use of the -PrtScrn- button to copy anything from your website.
Embedding the images in Flash files is another popular method. Now, this is a neat method to use, it will make it difficult for a thief to steal your work. You cannot right click and copy the image if it’s embedded in a flash file. But the flash file is already on your hard drive (cache). You can use any flash de-compiler software to easily grab any contents from a flash executable file. And of course you can simply use the -PrtScn- button to take snapshots.You see, the truth is that there’s nothing you can do to prevent a thief from stealing your content.
Fortunately there are services like
Copyscape that monitor your website’s activity and detect potential thieves. You can also have a look at this
copyright protection guide written by a former federal prosecutor and learn about the same legal techniques that the top internet attorneys and big law firms use.
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July 13th, 2009 at 06:39pm
Under copyright infringement
Lets start with copyright infringement.
It is easily explained as copying someone else’s work without
gaining permission first. This includes publishing other peoples
work to your web site, newspaper, magazine or even just
downloading it to your computer can be seen as copyright
infringement. The last is known as a grey area.
Other peoples work means anything created by a person. It can be
written content, graphical content, musical content or even
html, JavaScript, PHP, CGI, patterns, textures, animations. It
is anything tangible that’s created by a person. NOTE: A idea
cannot be copyrighted due to the fact it is not tangible.
Example….
I have just finished reading a book on how to service my car.
The author of the book explains in detail the different ways a
person can go about the job. He also details tips and tricks he
has learnt over the years that speed up the servicing.
Now after putting into practice what the author wrote I could go
and write my own book on how to service my car, right?
Right!
Why? Well the author can only copyright the content of his book
(words, pictures… etc) he cannot copyright the practice or
idea there in. This can be viewed in many different ways so if
your unsure it is always best to at least email the author
before taking any action with there material.
The short and sweet way of looking at this is your content no
matter what creative medium it falls under is automatically
copyrighted to you for the duration of your life. It can only be
broken if you decide to give your content away for free (you
must state that it is copyright free material) or you die and
nobody registers for the copyright to your material.
This leads us to Public Domain material…..
Before 1978 copyright only lasted 27 seven years. These days it
lasts the duration of the creators life. Therefor from the
minute you create your work it is automatically copyrighted to
you. It is still important to state this wherever you decide to
publish your material.
Public Domain material has no copyright and can be used in
anyway you see fit. Also unless you change it in someway it is
still Public Domain. So if you find a book that is in the Public
Domain and you start selling it on EBay, there is nothing
stopping the people who buy it from selling it themselves.
That’s why it is important to change the material. Add something
to it so it stands out or modernize the language so people can
understand the material better. Any changes copyright the “new”
book to you.
Anything published before 1928 falls under Public Domain. That
is of course unless someone got there first and changed the
material in some way. You have to watch out for that. It could
get you into trouble.
That’s the basics. For a more detailed insight into copyright go
to GOV.
Also depending on your country things maybe different so make
sure you know where you stand.
Personal Note……
Copyrighting your work is a good thing. You are the sole owner
of what you create and so you should be. There is a problem here
though. Once your material is published to the web, book,
magazine or even TV your leaving your material open to abuse.
This could be viewed as unfortunate but truthfully if it wasn’t
for copying other peoples HTML code I would have never learned
HTML. It was the same for Java Script and Graphic Design. Even
writing and game creation were learnt from copying others first.
It is also well known that internet marketers keep something
called a Swipe File on there computer. This is where they paste
items of interest they find on the web. It is a digital
scrapbook basically.
People learn by first copying and then creating. It is the
natural order of life to copy others. So if you want to be
strict about your copyright that’s fine. Just remember how you
learnt what you know before you draw a line in the sand:
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July 10th, 2009 at 10:25am
Under copyright protection
I am trying to copy a workout dvd for a co-worker but it says I cant copy it because it is has a copyright protection.
What other ways can I copy this (if any)?
July 10th, 2009 at 04:27am
Under website copyright
If I copy somebody’s template exactly (without permission), then go back and modify all of the colors, as well as even modifying names of html classes within the html itself, then I put my own content into it – is that copyright violation?
In fact, is copying pure html (not content) even a violation of copyright? If it was, pretty much every website online has been a copy of something else, just with different content.