| Patent and copyright are 2 different issues. There's been a lot of cases
| over the years trying to establish that computer code is patenable - it
| isn't. But it is copyrightable. You cannot put some text, images or script
| on your site that has been taken from another site. So the question is how
| to find it and what to do
Unfortunately, I only heard the tail end of the discussion on the radio, and never was able to find the rest of the story. Yes, two different things but bringing action against infringers is similar.
|
| In the UK the legal system works differently - if you sue or are sued the
| loser pays both sides costs so it's really a game of bluff. That's why it
| pays to approach the host and google. If someones dumb enough to do a copy
| and paste on your images/text/script they're probably running a $10 a month
| account with a host - show the host proof of infringement and they'll shut
| the site down in a second. It's not worth risking exposure for the sake of
| 10 bucks a month. Show google proof of infringement and they'll ban the
| site - to them the integrity of their search results is the reason they make
| so much money from adwords. Forget money damages - ain't going to happen -
| at least the other site is out of the game and is not going to profit from
| your content.
|
In certain types of cases it's the same way here, the infringed-upon can get legal costs recovered from the infringer IF the case is one...ya it's a crap-shoot alright. In my case I was fortunate that we went to binding mediation instead of court (which would have cost me a bundle).
| --
| Cheers,
| Jon
| Microsoft MVP
|
|
|
|
| message | I think I just heard that in the UK that even programs are not patentable
| now...or maybe the issue is currently undergoing review (?)
|
| Anyway, the sad fact is that inforcing trademark,servicemark, and copyrights
| is incredibly expensive (i've been there)...you have to actually prove your
| monetary damages - which is a LOT harder to do than you may think...and if
| the infringer has deeper pockets than you...throw in the international
| factor created by the web...and ferget it!
|
|
| | | Hi,
| | Tom's point is you can't stop people taking your stuff - which is true
| | enough but doesn't really help much. What you need to look at is what to
| do
| | when your stuff is stolen. Most of us when we first put up a site think
| it's
| | so brilliant other people will be lining up to steal it - 90% of the time
| | that's nonsense. So before you spend time worrying about copyright ask
| | yourself two questions
| | 1/ Is your content really good enough for people to take?
| | 2/ Do you actually have evidence that your content is appearing on other
| | sites?
| |
| | If you can answer yes to the either of the above you need a strategy in
| | place to locate stolen content and shut it down. Stolen content falls into
| 3
| | categories - images, text content and javascript
| |
| | 1/ Images. If you're a talented artist, you'd probably make your money in
| 2
| | ways. Selling your images on the web, in which case stick your company
| name
| | through your images. The user can see the quality of your work but won't
| | bother taking it. Or selling "work for hire" to a client in which case
| | copyright isn't your concern. You can also watermark your images, so at
| | least when you find one that's stolen you can prove it your's - the hard
| | part is finding it.
| |
| | 2/ Text Content. This is easy to track down. For example I have a site
| that
| | sells cell phones, each phone has a professionally written review. Every
| | friday I run a script that searches google for a specific phrase in the
| | reviews and every time I find at least one that's been lifted from my
| site,
| | most of them word for word copy and paste jobs.
| |
| | 3/ Javascript. If you're a scripter you'll know how to make your code hard
| | to copy. As with images the hard part is finding infringements.
| |
| | It's important to know who your competitors are so you can know who's
| likely
| | to steal your content. For all of my sites I know every other site in the
| | marketplace and can find new ones on google as they appear. if a sites not
| | in Google I'm not going to be worried about them. If someone that wasn't
| | competing with me stole scripts/images etc I probably wouldn't be too
| | concerned as they're not going to take money out of my pocket.
| |
| | Bottom line to this, if you're a talented writer/designer/javascripter you
| | will have your content stolen - no question about this. Forget about
| | preventing it - you can't. Just make sure you have a strategy in place to
| | find and attack the offenders. Go to the host as well as the site owner
| the
| | host generally has more money to lose so will be quicker to switch off a
| | site. Google will also ban a site if you can show copyright infringement.
| | Even if the site owner ignores you, if he can't host and can't get into
| | Google he's going to have major problems. You also need to chase up every
| | infringement you find, however trivial it may seem. One defence to
| copyright
| | infringement is that the owner did not aggressively pursue every
| | infringement.
| |
| | The only exception to the above is if your stuff appears on a site hosted
| in
| | China or eastern Europe. They don't play by our rules, crooks basically,
| so
| | don't even think about getting redress.
| |
| | Bottom line to this, while you can't stop people taking your content you
| can
| | have a strategy to stop people benifitting from your content. You'll never
| | win - it's a constant battle - but all we have on the web is our content
| so
| | fight hard to protect it and don't be put off by people saying "you can't
| | stop people downloading your code/images"
| |
| |
| | --
| | Cheers,
| | Jon
| | Microsoft MVP
| |
| message
| | | | > Thank you so much Tom.
| | >
| | > "Tom Pepper Willett" wrote:
| | >
| | >> How do I stop people from downloading my graphics or code?
| | >>
| | >>
http://www.digitalmidget.com/help/noclick/
| | >>
| | >>
http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/web1/how_do_i_stop_downloading.htm
| | >>
| | >>
http://www.jimcoaddins.com/protect.htm
| | >> --
| | >> ===
| | >> Tom "Pepper" Willett
| | >> Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
| | >> ---
| | >> About FrontPage 2003:
| | >>
http://office.microsoft.com/home/office.aspx?assetid=FX01085802
| | >> ===
| | >> message
| | >> | | >> | Hi,
| | >> | Can anyone tell me how I can copyright protect my webpage and text to
| | >> | prevent it from being copied on the net?
| | >> | I appreciate anyone's help.
| | >> | Many thanks,
| | >> | Dori
| | >>
| | >>
| | >>
| |
| |
|
|
