for more info on this please visit What is Copyright?


MYTH 1

Its ok for us to take a league page you (designers) have designed and change the backgrounds and images then the design is ours.

ANSWER
Wrong!

We coded the layout and designed the layout
all you did was change the images and backgrounds.
Still doesnt make it yours.

MYTH 2

If we purchase the page from one of you designers then that makes the page OURS to do as wel like.

ANSWER
Wrong!

We sold you the page you requested yes, but
unless you are willing to purchase exclusive copyright to that page
then our copyright must be left in place.

MYTH 3

I saw a page you designed, and I took a few ideas off that page and created my own.
(I didnt copy and paste anything off your designed page) So then the page becomes mine and my copyright can go on there.

ANSWER
Right!
As long as you HAVENT copy and pasted our codes as they are on our pages
but you have taken a few ideas off our pages to make your own
the layout isnt exactly like ours in any way shape or form.

Then you can claim copyright to it.

MYTH 4

Everyone knows that HTML cant be copyrighted so we can use any of your pages we want.

ANSWER
WRONG!

If your the author of the HTML in question, you saved it to your hard drive doesnt that make it a tangible item?
(something you can read and look at)
However, this only applies if one actually wrote the HTML coding and designed the web page layout by oneself
(even if one uses an HTML editor).
If one copies and pastes HTML from one web page into another one may not claim copyright.
It is not an original work, and may even be construed as copyright infringement.

MYTH 5

You have to pay for and register a copyright to something.

ANSWER
Wrong and Right!

copyright begins at the moment you puts your idea in a tangible form
Copyright protection begins when a photograph, HTML coding or a computer graphic that can be set on paper,
recorded on tape or saved to a hard drive, it may be protected. Copyright laws grant the creator the exclusive
right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform and display the work publicly.
Exclusive means only the creator of such work, not anybody who has access to it and decides to grab it.
A registered copyright is a must if you intend on sueing for monitary damages. You do not have to register a
copyright to put it on your pages, it just shows the visitors to your site that you are the owner and author of the page.
It is still a copyright non the less and you are protected under the copyright laws.