Who Owns The Copyright

To determine who owns the copyright to any content conduct the quick copyright test below.

1. Did you originate the material for which you want to claim a copyright under copyright law?


2. Did you hire another person under a "work-for-hire" agreement to create material for you?


3. Did you create the material that is to be protected by copyright law from other materials with proper citations to the other published original works?

If you answered "yes" to the above questions, the chances are good that you own the copyright, but there are exceptions.

1. Originator. Under copyright law, you can claim a copyright so long as you originated the material. If you answered "yes" to the question, then you need only put that material into a fixed medium and stake your claim. Copyright law no longer requires an originator to publish the material; rather, a copyright is established upon creation in a fixed medium. Ideas, thoughts or even manuscripts that are idealized, but not put into a fixed medium cannot be copyright protected. A fixed medium includes any medium that can preserve the material such as a word document, a website, or on paper or in a paper tablet. If you were not the originator, then you cannot claim a copyright until and unless the copyright is transferred to you from its originator.


2. Work-for-hire. Under copyright law, you can hire another person to create material on your behalf so long as that was the intended agreement before the material was created. A work-for-hire agreement must be in writing, signed by both parties and explicitly state the event upon which the copyright is transferred (usually upon final payment). Under contract law, your agreement must be in writing if it valued at more than $1,000.00, cannot be completed within one year, or is between a non-business person and a business or legal entity, even if it is not a work-for-hire. Note that the mere provision of "notes" or an outline for the person creating the content under a work-for-hire agreement does NOT create a copyright for you in the final material created from your notes or outlines.


3. Works from other works. Anyone who copies material from a website and republishes the copied material or materials on their own website violates copyright law. See Digital Millenium Act of 1998, or Google on DMCA law. Copying content on the web parallels copying someone else's test in law school - it will get you taken out of the game. Copying another's content and making changes to it is plagarism. Basically, if you cannot create it anew, don't create it. In addition to "creating" a civil tort albiet copying or plagarizing content for which you might get sued, and violating federal law, copying content on the web creates duplicative content on two (or more) websites the results of which will be a duplicative content error that will result in one or both websites falling in the rankings for searches relative to the duplicated content. Duplicative content can also cause greater harm; for example, repeat offenders can be banned from search results. You should create rules for handling copyright infringments (some suggestions are provided below).

SPECIAL NOTATIONS:

The penalty for filing a false DMCA complaint is $100,000.

Search engines are not in the business of mediating between competitors, nor refereeing in spamming wars. If you file complaints with the search engines that are barely-true, false or part and parcel a spamming war with a competitor, the chances are very good that you won't like the outcome. Do not file a complaint with any search engine without having first contacted the owner of the website you claim is infringing upon your copyright with a request to take the duplicative content down. A complaint should only be filed with the search engines when you have exhausted the remedies below so as to avoid appearances of a spam war.

If your website content is duplicated, change the content immediately, and contact the webmaster of the site that is infringing upon your copyright to ask that the content be imemdiately removed (within 24 or 48 hours). Once it is removed, you can restore your original content. If the webmaster fails to remove it, issue a cease and desist demand to the owner and webmaster. If that still fails to get the duplicated content taken down, file a DMCA complaint. We strongly suggest hiring an experienced Intellectual Property Attorney.

Helpful links:
DMCA
Intellectual Property Attorneys
Copyright Litigation Attorneys
Trademark Litigation Attorneys
Patent Attorneys