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You
may see something you like on a web site, but that doesn't
mean you can take it for your own display
By
Michael Lerner
learnthenet.com
If you
want to publish a web page of your own, a good starting
place for ideas is the Net itself. Surf around and look
at other people's pages. This is also a quick and dirty
way to learn HTML. You can do this by using your browser
to view the source code of pages that you like. Because
it's so easy to do, the natural tendency is to copy other's
web pages or elements of their pages. People do this quite
a bit - cutting, pasting, and modifying them to suit their
needs. This raises some copyright issues of which you should
be aware.
The
Internet is a relatively new frontier; the Web even newer.
Because of the unique nature of digital media, some of the
copyright laws that apply to printed material in the physical
world don't work as well in cyberspace. As a result, there
are gray areas that are hotly debated. However, some general
principles apply. If you think of a web page as an original
creation, then it follows that you can't reproduce it in
whole or in part without the permission of the original
creator. Even if you are not reproducing part of someone
else's work for commercial purposes, you should still get
permission.
Let's
say you find a Website you like and you want to provide
this information to your visitors. You can do this by linking
to the site from yours. Do you need permission? The way
things stand right now, the answer is no. In fact the culture
of the Web encourages the free exchange of information;
many Websites, such as Learn the Net, actively encourage
links. Still, netiquette dictates that you notify the administrators
or creators of the site that you are linking to their page.
You might even ask them to reciprocate, a good way to increase
traffic to your site.
In
general, text, graphics, animation and other intellectual
property that is published on the Internet is protected
by U.S. and international copyright laws. You cannot use
someone else's work unless you first get clearance from
the copyright owner to do so.
It
may be difficult to determined who holds the copyright,
so see if there is a list of credits on the site. If not,
send e-mail to the contact for the Website. In many cases,
this is the webmaster, who is usually a technical person
who doesn't deal with content-related issues. But he or
she should be able to refer you to the right person. To
protect yourself, be sure to obtain the rights in writing.
The
Copyright Website (www.benedict.com) has a summary of the
issues raised here, as well as many others. For legal opinions
on copyright laws and other Internet related issues, visit
the Cyberspace Law Website (http://www.ssrn.com/update/lsn/lsn_cyberspace.html).
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