Copyright and the Internet

[motormouth]

Hi

I have my fireworks website and their are plenty of photos/some video's on their etc.

However certain people seem to think everyone else's websites are their just to provide source material for their own projects.

Also a couple of features I wrote on fireworks have gone and turned up elsewhere.

Anyway when I contact these people the response is often the same

"Copyright does not apply to the web" etc

Or sometimes they say

"Only things with a copyright notice on them are copyright to someone"

And the most annoying

"Copyright only counts where cash is involved"

So basically are any of these true and if not can I take action against people stealing my work and content ?

Thanks for any help

[geekgirl]

Copyright does apply to the web as well. The text and photo's belong to you even if no cash is involved.
I work part time for a heritage organisation www.livingarchive.org.uk and even when folks bring in photos or documents for us to look at, before we can do anything they have to sign forms giving us permision.
For photo's on the web there is little bit of code you can put in which stops people from being able to right click images and save them. Don't know how well this works as I have never used it. I will have a look around and see if I can remember where I saw the code.
As for the text it would be nice if people would link back to you and reference you as the author of the material.

[motormouth]

Thanks for the reply

It would be beeter still if people copying text stright from my site asked me first.

The one good thing is the 2 features that were stolen must be rather good if other sites want them :P

[geekgirl]

yep that is certainly true, biggest form of flattery.
Its funny but when we are researching to do a new course we have to go to hundreds of different websites and we always ask permission if we need to use something, everyone so far has been so helpful, even sending us other material and books etc... this is great as we are a charity. But I think it is because we go and ask them, they are probably used to folks just nickin' it.
Good luck with keeping a track on it.
Would you find the code for stopping the right click useful?

[motormouth]

Dont get me wrong anyone I am happy to let people use my material but I expect to be asked first and credited by them.

Yeah I would appreciate the code to stop people right clicking.

[geekgirl]

Heres the code. I got it from http://www.htmlhelpcentral.com/js_no_right_click.html in case you need to check it out further. Good luck with it.

<script>
function right(e) {
if (navigator.appName == 'Netscape' &&
(e.which == 3 || e.which == 2))
return false;
else if (navigator.appName == 'Microsoft Internet Explorer' &&
(event.button == 2 || event.button == 3)) {
alert("I dont want you to do that!!!");
return false;
}
return true;
}

document.onmousedown=right;
if (document.layers) window.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN);
window.onmousedown=right;
</script>

[lyssa2446]

Hi.
I have had a similar problem with people using photographs from my website. I now have the swap image feature in Dreamweaver which swaps 'on copy' for a 'null' image. However, my photos still seem to appear on new sites. I think part of the problem is search engines like Google having 'image searches'. Newbies see the photos on there and think they are free for the taking, no questions asked.
I also have a popup on the first paragraph of a lengthy biography that several people had copied and pasted into their own sites, not even bothering to alter the formatting I had used on the text ! The popup says 'Hey, leave my words on this page!' This doesn't prevent copying, but makes them think a bit before doing so. I shall try the script that you have mentioned however, it may be an improvement.

[Annied]

My knowledge of copyright laws, such as it is, is that in the UK, I hold the copyright to anything I write or draw, regardless. I use the code that's been quoted here on my website too. I customised the message to fit the website. I use Dreamweaver 4 and will take a look around and see if it has the swap image feature that's been mentioned. I've been meaning to attempt to get my head around the watermark feature in Photoshop too.

What also annoys me greatly and about which I can do nothing, is people who steal my ideas. I spend a fair bit of time and effort trying to be original. I'm happy to help anyone out in a general way, but I do find it so frustrating when I've spent hours searching for the right free scripts in order to make an idea workable, only to have someone systematically pinching my ideas.

[oldzbutgoodies]

It is your pic and text.
years ago on ebay a person stole my pic,description & then anyone could get bidders emails he took all my customers too. too late by the time they sent me the forms to complain it was over. their forms were more threatening to the victim,you better be able to prove it is your pic or you can be sued by the thief and thrown off ebay..eeek..
a few weeks ago a huge power seller stole my description! lazy!

that substitute pic thing sounds great,,someone gave me this in case the person was dumb enough to hot link..so i could change my pic to this LOL (i also liked to use A HUGE OREGON GIANT SLUG(giant worm type thing) GIVING BIRTH HANGING UPSIDE DOWN WITH SLIME HANGING DOWN A WALL..a nice lovely pic to replace the stolen one with..
this one is nice too..from www.auctionguild.com
http://www.imagemagician.com/images/oldzbutgoodies/stolenpic.gif
[/img]

[JWJ]

As someone with a lot of original watercolours on my website, I am very concerned about other users taking copies without permission. I do not sell my watercolours and they are only a hobby, and I would be flattered if I thought anyone would *want* to copy them .... but that's not the point. I would be thrilled if a site visitor asked for permission and also offered a link back to my site .... then we'd both be winners.

I recently heard the word "Linkware" but know nothing about it. Is this something "official" we can do, or is it just a case of saying on your site "These images are Linkware"?

Also, I can easily prove myself as being the owner of the images - I've got the originals - so would words like "Copyright Protected" act as much of a deterent. I suspect not because there is no way of tracing the culprit. A bit of code capturing the email address of the copier would be really useful.

[webmoriar]

I don't think there is anything that can just get someone's email unless you have something that hacks into their computer and retrieves it if they use outlook or something. Of course that would be completley illegal not to mention I have no clue how you would do it.

To stop hotlinking you can find out how to modify your .htaccess file if you have the server rights. The stop right click can be a deterrent by just asking them to email you if they would like to put it up on their site since you can't stop them you can always make it obvious that you are happy to let them use it with proper acknowledgement.

You can also digimark your images in programs like photoshop. I have heard of something that allows you to put a transparent image over the actual image and that would also prevent right click but some people could still figure out how to get the image.

Hope that helps.

[JWJ]

I want to thank you guys for your comments regarding copyright, especially geekgirl for the great code.

My images now carry a notice at the foot of the page warning about copyright, asking to be asked, and suggesting a link. I have used the code to flash up a message drawing attention to the notice.

I would be extremely pleased for anyone to have a look and try it out. Any and all criticisms, comments and suggestions would be most welcome.

Look on http://jwj.members.beeb.net/northampton.htm

Thanks again. :D

[geekgirl]

Glad it was of some use to you.
I went and tried it and it worked perfectly. As I said before, I have not used the code myself so good to see it working.

As it happens I live near Northampton and the watercolours are a true representation of (the few) buildings I recognise. Good stuff.

Cheers

[webmoriar]

Love the site. If I may ask how did you get your paintings online? Did you just use a high quality scanner? My grandfather in England does watercolour and if I ever get the opportunity to do a site for him your advice would be appreciated.

[JWJ]

Stephen, Thanks for the kind words and glad you like the site.

Yes, I use a scanner. An HP Scanjet 5370C. It's a bit out of date now, but still does it's job reasonably well. The really tricky part is that many paintings are larger than A4. I have to scan most of mine in two separate halves and then stitch the halves together. I use Paint Shop Pro 7 which does quite nicely.

A tip: - The two halves usually overlap to a good extent. Rather than just pasting them together I use Freehand Cut to copy one half onto the other. This lets me trace the cut along the edge of buildings, or up trees, etc. otherwise a 'straight' join can be so easily spotted. It ain't perfect .... but it's good enough :)

Drop me a line if I can tell you any more .... I love to help when I can.... and when your Grandfathers paintings are finally online I hope you remember to send me a link.

Regards
John

[webmoriar]

Thanks for the information John! :)