Why copyrighting your website is important
If you have your own website, it's likely brimming with juicy information that satiates Google’s appetite for the Expertise, Authoritative and Trustworthiness (EAT) principles. But just about anyone can take your content and share it on social media or use it on their own website, without your permission, and it’s not technically stealing anything, even though it is. So how do you protect your information from being stolen and why is it so important? Having a copyright notice or website terms and conditions which state clearly that the content is not to be used needs to be in existence to assist us lawyers to nail the naughty culprits when you bust them for stealing your stuff. In this article we’ll discuss how Copyright can protect your website from the ravages of the interwebs.
What’s protected
The Copyright Act won’t protect your website as a whole but it does cover specific things such as:
Blog posts or articles
Photos, or illustrations
Music, podcasts or other similar types of recordings; or
Vlogs, animations etc
But wait, there’s more. It will only cover these things if a person has copied lots of them, not just one or two of them, because the infringement is assessed on a qualitative and quantitative basis. Interestingly, and not to confuse you, you don’t have to register anything on your website for it to be protected by copyright, as soon it’s created, it’s protected - but only if you catch someone copying a significant portion of the content.
Fair Dealing
This is where someone is allowed to copy information from your website for research, news reporting, criticism or parody. If you find that someone has copied information from your website for these reasons, it’s not a copyright infringement. Sorry.
Who owns the copyright then??
To put it simply if you created the thing then you own the copyright. If you used a thing from a third party you don’t own the copyright, they do. Let’s use a cupcake analogy. If you made them, you own them - if your Mum made them, she owns them. If she offered some to you to take home and share with your friends, she’s given you consent to share them. Same goes for using content from Youtube, or an image from a site like Pixabay; if you didn’t create the content the best rule of thumb is to ask permission to use it (because forgiveness can be way more costly). Conversely, if someone has genuinely copied content that you created and added to your website, you can claim copyright infringement against them. They stole your cupcakes.
Pro Tip: If you’ve used a website designer for your website, talk to them about ensuring copyright is yours so they don’t create similar designs for your competitors, because let’s face it, they’re going to use a template at some point to make their job more efficient. Don’t let your website become a template!
How to catch a copycat.
Stop it, I don’t like it. I’m telling my Lawyer on you.
Right. So. You’ve established that someone is definitely stealing your stuff. You can start by politely asking them to take down the content. If they rudely refuse, you can lawyer up and take legal action with a cease and desist letter.
Be Proactive! B-E Proactive!
To be honest, it’s costly to fire off a bunch of letters from your lawyer every time someone copies content from your website, especially if they don’t even realise it’s an infringement. However, one way to deter such behaviour is to use a Copyright Notice. This basically lets people know what they’re allowed to copy and what they should keep their hands off and how they can use your content. It makes your life much easier, especially if people actually follow the rules.
The Australian Copyright Council suggests using a Copyright Notice that clearly states what visitors to your website can and can’t do with your material and what will happen if they get caught doing the wrong thing with it. You can also do cool things like watermarking your images and locking down videos so they can’t be downloaded or embedded on other sites.
You can actually purchase a website Terms and Conditions for your website from our store and our F-BOM can help you copyright your website for free! Or you can contact Kathryn Adams to discuss your Copyright questions.
