Copyright for web

In South Africa if you create anything physical, whether it is an article or artwork, it automatically falls under the copyright law, and the artist has rights or ownership of it. However, it is not the same in other countries.

With the Web being created and majority of the content coming from the USA, it is best to understand the law from their side. In USA law, the artist does not get automatic copyrights to his piece, but has to apply for it. This applies to web design and content writing.

In order to apply you need to be the original owner of the piece and the work has to be submitted by the original owner. If the piece is in digital format, it can be submitted on a CD or memory stick. When filling in the form, called a TX, online work falls under the large category “Literary Works”.

If a third party uses the copyrighted work, without permission from the owner, they can be sued for infringement. According to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), infringement includes “hyperlinks, online dictionaries, search engines and the like.”

Owing to the internet being such a large source of information, checking for infringements of copyright can be a full time job. In most cases, an e-mail is sent to the webmaster who has violated the act, to take the item in question down. However there have been more severe cases and content managers, web designers and SEO`s are warned to check before simply copying and pasting.