Well we all have that little copyright text in the footer of our websites. Does it really matter and help in anyway?
yes it can, as it shows you are copyrighting your own work, although it does actually cost a lot of money to officially do it BUT you don't have to tell the rippers that
In the U.S. the copyright symbol is enough, but if you want a to add a "inc" or "llc" you have to get it registered. "Group" is legal to use without registration.
The copyright symbol is not required on anything to claim copyright...It just helps reinforce the fact that your content is unique...to an extent.
It does make a difference. It shows when the content was copyrighted and helps when you file a DMCA complaint against another site that steals your design or content. It should also help you out in a court as well if somebody ever decides to sue you for something though not as much as a registered copyright, still better than nothing.
Agreed. Also, last time I was on phpBB Communities, they actually have a DCMA badge showing that their content, design, etc, is copyrighted and they could take action against violators. I don't know if this would be much use for a general discussion community like mine, since we discuss things that just about any other general discussion community talks about, but for a resource forum like this or phpBB Communities, I'm sure something like that can help you guys a lot.
Yeah, that's true, now that you put it that way. Because if you have a custom theme that you made set up, and someone takes it without your permission, you may have to take action. All we do for copyright is just do like (c) 2011 and then Ash will put that the theme was modified by him or something like that. So I guess that's a good thing for anyone of any forum to have.
Yea and also just to clear up confusion it wont stop people from copying you but its best to have it just in case you get into legal fights then you can say you have a copyright notice... it will help you.
I'm not sure anything can protect a forum or site owner from digital thieves who think they are immune from prosecution for theft. Most people think just cause something is available online, then it must be free. Those same people would think twice about walking out of a store carrying an arm load of goods they haven't paid for. However, you could use scripts that prevent right clicking. That would discourage people from copying content off your forum to paste elsewhere. I have done that before with my blogs. The scripts are a big deterrent to thieves and keeps people from hot-linking to your photos, too and draining your bandwidth. Though I was looking up this issue on Google and found a few resources that might help out in the copyright situation. For one thing, you can use Copyscape to see if anyone is copying your site. Just enter your site URL on the page and they will check the Internet to see if there are copies elsewhere. This might help you identify if someone has 'scraped' content from your site. They also have some free banners available for your site that warn visitors that your site's content is protected by Copyscape.
Yea there is no way in stopping them just making it harder, and I had plans to add the Disable right click for guests, just never got to it. And about copyscape, I am aware of it but theres no point in really using those images because if someone wants to copy you, you really cant do anything about it. The copyright text is enough for me. And their engine to find copyrighted content is useless. Not accurate at all.
I think it can help as far as your claim for your unique and legal content. Well, we don't really know what will be in the future so it can also serve as a protection in the future. Legal complications can arise anytime so shielding yourself would always be a good idea.
