Obtaining Copyrights

[robot180]

We aren't concerned with other teams using information from our site. That is what we are here for. If I see a quote on another team's site that I wrote and posted on ours, I won't mind. However, if our official S.P.A.M. logo, for example, was found on the SPAM website (as in spam the meat) I would be mad and would kindly ask them to remove it. Actually, I would probably discuss it with my team first, but the copyright might protect us.

I also think that copyrights help to clarify who owns the information and the site. Our old site was not just copyrighted by our team (similar to chiefdelphi's copyright naming delphi) and so we had a possibility of conflict over who owned what. Therefore, I would like to use a copyright to clarify who actually owns the website and its contents and to show that we claim responsibility for its content, unless some page or item is labelled otherwise.

[jonathan lall]

Heh, you do not want to get into a copyright war with Hormel.

[MattK]

Its your intellectual property... you own it. I would check with eff.org or the creative commons (as posted above)

[robot180]

I think we decided how to handle it, thanks for all the great information. I read that page on SPAM and went through our whole website, not up yet, changing SPAM to S.P.A.M. I heard that our team asked them to sponsor us, but they graciously declined. We are not affiliated with them and our name is an acronym for "South Fork High School" "Pratt & Whitney" "and" "Martin County High School". After reading that article, though, I am much more careful about how we display our team's name.

There is now another SPAM team and I wonder how they handle all of this. I might talk to someone from that team. Thanks again.

[KarenH]

Originally Posted by fallnangelzbld

So basically guys the copyright priveledge can be used for ANYTHING you create that is tangible. If you wish to be able to sue others for infringement of your work, though... you have to register. BTW... the "poor man's copyright" where you send the letter to yourself...doesn't stand up in court... so says the website ... lol

Actually, I learned about the copyright laws from a songwriter who'd been burned when a band stole one of his songs, then told him, "So sue us!" He said that the most effective tactic is to publicize, advertise, and promote your work as yours. Hey, if "everybody" knows it's yours, anyone trying to steal it will look like a fool. Imagine some little-known person born in 1985 claiming he or she wrote "Yellow Submarine!"

One misuse of a website is fraud. I've been getting e-mails from someone mimicking Earthlink, my ISP, in which I'm sent threatening messages saying that if I don't send in my credit card info, I'll lose my Earthlink service. The messages use Earthlink colors, and appear to use genuine Earthlink web links. If Earthlink ever finds out who's doing it, assuming the culprit is in the U.S., the case will go far beyond copyright infringement. No doubt a LOOONG federal prison sentence will be imposed.

In another case I know of, the enemies of a controversial organization put up a website using a domain name similar to the organization's, then loaded it with verbal attacks against the organization. The only difference between the domain names was that one used hyphens between the words, and the other didn't. Anyone using a search engine to find the organization would have turned up both domain names, and wouldn't have known which one was genuine. The organization sued their attackers, and won.

[robot180]

I know it's been a long time since I started this, but I still have not come to a conclusion about this. I noticed another team using a Creative Commons License, I think it was Woburn Robotics, and I asked about it and never got a response. I am wondering if that would legally protect work in the U.S. If that is not a good idea, then what is? How would one obtain a legal copyright? Do you have to submit something to the U.S. Pattent Office or something, or just use one of those websites for registering a copyright?

Also, what do other teams do with their sites? Do they copyright them and how?

[jonathan lall]

Originally Posted by robot180

I know it's been a long time since I started this, but I still have not come to a conclusion about this. I noticed another team using a Creative Commons License, I think it was Woburn Robotics, and I asked about it and never got a response. I am wondering if that would legally protect work in the U.S. If that is not a good idea, then what is? How would one obtain a legal copyright? Do you have to submit something to the U.S. Pattent Office or something, or just use one of those websites for registering a copyright?

Also, what do other teams do with their sites? Do they copyright them and how?

Our site does use a Creative Commons License, and it does -- to a limited level of enforceability like any copyright -- protect our site's content. But I don't remember seeing your question anywhere... Did you ask via our Site Message System or our Ask188 feature a couple months back? A few glitches (that have since been dealt with) have made us lose some messages irreparably, but I see all of them that er, get through. Our bad on that one.

[Mike]

According to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998, any object placed on the web is granted an automatic copyright to the author.

[robot180]

I read a little on the act and had trouble understanding it. I will assume then that anything uploaded to the web is automatically copyrighted, but I am not sure how accurate this statement is.

jonathan lall: I don't remember which method I used to contact you, but don't worry about it. I just mentioned that cause I know you used the Creative Commons. As I understand, your team is from Canada, unless I am thinking of another team, and are the laws there different where Creative Commons protects your site and not one from the U.S.? This is what I am researching.

[Greg Marra]

IANAL, but I'm pretty sure anything you create you automatically get a copyright on. It's usually a question of being able to prove you created it. Which is actually easier with computers and such.

[jonathan lall]

Well it's not just under Canadian law. Creative Commons is just as, if not more, binding in the United States. In both our countries however, certain website content is not automatically public domain as some might assume. A Creative Commons license is just a further affirmation (with a few stipulations) that under US/Canadian laws, and international treaty, no one can use what I make as his or her own. For the purposes of a website, this is probably more than enough I would say. The issue isn't really whether it's legal or not anyway; it is with how enforceable these laws are.

[DarkJedi613]

Originally Posted by robot180

I see that a lot of people, not just teams, but websites in general, say that the website is copyrighted but all they did was put the words copyright blah blah blah at the bottom of each page. As I understand, in order to have your website legally copyrighted, you have to send in copies of all of your source code and copies of every page. Does anyone know of anything else that you have to do? Also, is there an exact format for the copyright?

When its made its yours. End of story.

Honestly...I don't care if someone views my source code. All you'll get from it is basically the layout (which honestly really helps people learn HTML/JavaScript). And then of course anything created by PHP is just an absolute mess in the middle of the layout (since I don't use those nifty \n\r's for new lines. I'm more worried about people stealing my images. Images are what make or break a website, if someone steals them and you can prove its yours a website provider will often shut the site down or ask them to remove those images.

[Dan Zollman]

If you're concerned about more than one page of a website being copyrighted, things can be copyrighted as a collection.

Consider that national laws don't have much control over most things on the internet. Relying on laws to protect your web pages isn't enough.

Regardless of whether or not mailing something to yourself "works", it can still be proof that you had information before the postmark date.