How to Display Material That Has a Copyright

How to Display Material That Has a CopyrightHow to Display Material That Has a CopyrightYouve completed a masterpiece, and youve had the work copyrighted. The question is, are you finished? The answeris, bedrngnis quite. Thats because youll want the world to know that you have your work copyrighted and thereby protected. How you show that your work has a copyright is more a matter of preference than it is an issue of U.S. law. When you use someone elses work, many authors will require that you display their copyright in a certain format. Likewise, you can require that others follow your specifications for using any of the work you produce. For example, you might allow someone to use your work freely for personal use as long as they give you credit in a previously agreed upon format. But, you might want to restrict the use of your work for commercial purposes because that means someone else is making money from your efforts. You might also allow, or not allow, use of derivative works, which are changes that youve made to your work. When You Use Someone Elses Material When youre using material from someone else, its very important that you honor the authors request as to how she or hewants credit shown, including how the writer wants their copyrights displayed. Examples of Copyright Formats You can show that youre the author or creator of copyrighted material in several ways including the following Copyright (word) DateExample Copyright 2008Copyright Symbol the Date or Year Something Was CreatedExample March 2008 or 2008Copyright Symbol With WordExample Copyright 2008Symbol Alone (when showing reference to something specific)Example How to Copyright Your Publications written by Anita Newborn. Sometimes, authors also use the words All Rights Reserved, or All Intellectual Rights Reserved. However, neither is necessary because the copyright already indicates that your rights are protected. Do I Have to Show an Actual Copyright Symbol? You dont have t o show an actual copyright symbol. That said, its alwaysin your best interest to declare your rights to, and ownership of, a pspeciesicular work anywhere the work is used or displayed. Should you end up having to sue someone for copyright infringement, it will be easier to prove that the person who used your work without permission was aware that they did not have the right to do so. The unmistakable copyright symbol makes it clear that the person was warned and proceeded ahead anyway. Its worth noting that a creator of work might not want to put a symbol on their work for many reasons. For example, paintings, photographs, and tangible art such as sculptures and furniture would have to be physically altered and stamped with the symbol, which would alter the art. Metadata and program coding are two other examples. A creator might have written the code or metadata, but its not possible to stamp the work with a copyright symbol. Its Always Better to Assume You Have No Rights The b ottom line is that if you did not personally create something,you most likely do not have the right to reuse it unless its in the public domain, even if you give credit to the source. If you ever have any question about whether you can use something, your best recourse is to contact the creator and ask them for permission, and if they say yes, to get that in writing.