So you'd like to use some content on someone else's site or would like to know what your rights as a web developer are? Then great, because that's exactly what this article is about. To start out, your images, photographs, and text are copyrighted the moment you create them without any need of registering them or including a copyright symbol on them. However, registering them will help in the case that you'd ever need to take anyone to court.
"Fair Use"
Fair use is placing another's work such as text out of an article on one of your web pages. You can usually get away with 2-3 sentences quoting them and making sure to give them credit. Also, never mislead the reader to think that the author of that article is endorsing you in anyway. You should still always try to get the author's permission for something like this, although it isn't usually required.
Graphics
You have the rights to the graphics YOU create for your site. If the graphics are created by someone else, make sure you get their permission to use them. In this case, they still own the rights, they're just allowing you to use them (unless they pass the rights on to you). Photographs and graphics created by others are copyrighted the moment they're created. You cannot use them without the author's permission.
HTML
Proving someone's stolen your HTML can be a little tricky. A couple things you might look for is obviously the exact same code and the same misspelled words. As a web developer, you own the rights to the code you write, but it can be quite tough proving someone has copied you if they make some large alterations.
Text/Articles
The Articles and written work you do are copyrighted the moment you write them. People may not use them on their web site without your permission. However, they may be able to get away with a few sentences out of your article, but they must give you credit.
Preventing people from stealing your work
People have made scripts for disabling right click buttons and the like, but there's always ways around them. One thing you can and should do is include a copyright line at the bottom of each of your pages:
The contents of this site are copyrightŠ 2000, your name/company. All Rights Reserved.
You should always register copyrights for slogans or names (e.g. Domain name) associated with your site since these don't really belong to you. The same goes for ideas. To register your entire site with the US copyright office for $30, go to http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/
Also understand that I'm not a lawyer and nor should any of this information replace a lawyer's advice. Laws may differ a little state to state or country to country and can change in certain circumstances.
This article was written by Pete Gullekson of TheDevWeb which can be found at http://www.thedevweb.com
