Well, actually, you are correct and incorrect.
Anything written does not have to apply for a copyright to be copyrighted.
All it has to do is be published out in the world in some fashion and it is
considered copyrighted.
I've worked in law for 40+ years and handled copyrighting for a musician
who is in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. So I have handled copyright for
many years. A writing or composition or whatever item is not REQUIRED TO
BE REGISTERED. Copyright merely exists because something is published.
See,
http://thompsonhall.com/does-a-copyright-have-to-be-registered-to-be-valid/,
just by chance posted by an attorney in Minneapolis, MN.
To actually sue someone over copyright infringement, you should have it
registered to verify that you created it. The problem with registering a
website is that it actually changes over time, or at least it should. What
would be great is if a CC in MNGenWeb would copyright the counties FOR
MNGenWeb. I myself will never take down anything I publish to a GenWeb
site. I did it for others, not myself. If I want something to BELONG to
me, I would put it on a personal website
NO ONE CAN COPYRIGHT PUBLIC DOMAIN MATERIAL AND FACTS. NO ONE.
In order to sue someone over copyright, you'd better have the money to
retain a copyright attorney. They do not handle it for free, and they are
most definitely not cheap. Should someone want to sue another over a
genealogy website, the attorney would view the site and would need to
determine that everything was the CREATION of that person. You cannot
copyright a table format. You cannot copyright the data included in that
table.
First of all, why are we doing this work anyway? To help others. When
it's for any other reason, it is a farce
What you are actually describing is if you want to go through all the work
of copyrighting something that probably is not going to be changing, etc.
Now, does that keep someone from stealing something that is copyrighted,
either by publishing or submitting to the U.S. Copyright Office in
Washington, D.C. Nope. And the only thing you can copyright is the
creativity of the page(s). Add to that, you are also using graphics or
page backgrounds, or whatever, that someone else created and has allowed
you to use.
An alternative is to not use the copyright symbol. Just include the date.
Or use "This site last updated Nov. 2014."
For those who want to knitpick this issue just eliminate the copyright
symbol.
*The whole point of placing a current date on the main page is to show that
the site is being attended to actively.*
On the flip side is, copyright infringement was established in order to
protect the financial income of that item for that person.
Then there is the Fair Use Doctrine which allows anyone to use a portion of
someone's actual copyrighted work (of course, they should give credit to
whomever's work they are using, but they do not have to obtain permission,
no matter how many times someone places that type of disclaimer on their
website).
But thanks for posting.
Denise Wells
National Coordinator
The USGenWeb Project
www.usgenweb.org
USGenWeb Advisory Board Agenda
http://usgenweb.org/agenda2.shtml
(Agenda to be updated shortly)
On Thu, Nov 27, 2014 at 11:42 AM, Martha A Crosley Graham via <
mngen(a)rootsweb.com> wrote:
Good Morning,
In reading the latest posts on State & County Requirements, I had to ask
myself a couple of questions.
What do I really know about copyright laws and WebSites?
The answers are confusing at best, but a search reveals that in order
for a website to be copyrighted or for its contents to be copyrighted,
applications and fees must be paid before a copyright is issued.
Fees run from $35.00 to $55.00.
http://copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-register.html#register
Ok, so there are fees, applications, etc to be paid and filled out.
Have I done this for my many websites? _No_.
Therefore, I do not have the right to display a copyright on any of my
sites, County or State.
Unless there is such a thing as a 'blanket copyright' issued to the US
GenWeb Project for each and every County and State or each one of us
applied for and received a copyright for our Counties, we do not have
the right to display a copyright.
Martha A Crosley Graham
CC: Blue Earth County, MN
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