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protect your site
Protecting your web site from online thieves
Part 2
Prevention cures copyright
In this design tip, we will go over the most important steps to take
for protecting your web site and web graphic images from these online
thieves.
Place a copyright notice on every web page
The first thing to do is display your copyright notice on the bottom
of your home page — and preferably on all pages of your web site.
This copyright notice should be followed by the year of publication and
your company name, such as:
© 1997-2004, Grantastic Designs, Inc. All rights reserved.
(We personally use a footer.gif graphic file on all pages of our web
site for contact information and copyright notice. This way we only have
to replace one graphic at the end of the year to update the copyright
dates. We also put alternative text in this
graphic that states the copyright so it can be seen by our visitors who
surf with images turned off in their browsers.)
Print out every page of your web site. Check your browser's Print Options
menu and be sure the Headers and Footers box is selected. This will include
the date and time right on your page printout.
Save copies of your web site
Every time you create a new web document or graphic image AND every time
you modify a web page, save a copy of your new pages or modifications
to any backup media — CD, Zip disk, floppy, etc. Do not make further
edits to that copy so you can preserve the original dates your files were
made. This will provide you with hard evidence that your content is "older"
than any alleged stolen content that might appear in the future.
If you have older versions of your web site, make sure you save the dates
and print them out as well. You will need this as evidence to prove that
you, not the alleged thief, wrote the content and the code.
For extra protection, take screen shots of the folders that contain all
your web images, including their file information and dates of creation.
Protecting web graphic images
There are several ways you can protect your web images, some offering
more protection than others.
1. Captioning
You do not need to know any special coding or to purchase software
for captioning. All you do is put a small copyright notice next to each
of your images. If you have a number of images shown together as a single
body of work, only one copyright notice is needed.
Captioning will not physically stop thieves from stealing your images,
but it will give them clear notice that the images belong to you and
that they will have no excuse for taking them without permission.
For better protection, include the caption as part of the graphic or
even slightly overlapping the graphic.
2. Watermarking
Digital watermarking lets you easily embed copyright information inside
your electronic (web) images. This information, when opened, or decoded,
can reveal things such as the author/owner of the copyright, the copyright
date, the contact information, and the terms of use.
Watermarks cannot be removed or altered, and they do not degrade image
quality or add to file size.
Watermarking works best with images that are larger than thumbnail
size. Very small images may fail to embed a watermark.
Numerous watermarking software products and services are available.
Some are separate software programs, others come as plug-ins used with
your digital imaging software, such as the popular Adobe Photoshop™.
The rest are proprietary software programs handled directly by digital
imaging services.
One product commonly used by digital professionals and beginners is
ImageBridge™, from Digimarc.
We highly recommend this and its software companion, MarcSpider, which
lets you track where your images are being used elsewhere on the public
Web.
3. Disable image copying
Some people don't want visitors to copy or save the images on their
sites. If you're one of them, you can use a script in the HTML code
of each of your web pages and it will disable the right click button
on all the images on your site.
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The JavaScript Source: Page Details: Protect Images
Simply click inside the window below, use your cursor to highlight
the script, and copy (type Control-c or Apple-c) the script into
a new file in your text editor (such as Note Pad or Simple Text)
and save (Control-s or Apple-s). The script is yours.
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We usually do not recommend disabling image copying for two reasons:
it can be counterproductive and it is not foolproof.
Image disabling can be counterproductive because most people who visit
your site do so for legitimate purposes. If you do not allow potential
clients or customers to save an image on your web site, you have made
it much harder for them to review your work and distribute it among
their associates.
Basically, you might be viewed as treating your visitors as if they
are thieves, and they will be less likely to browse your site.
Image disabling is not foolproof because hardcore thieves can find
other ways of stealing your site, such as taking screen shots of your
pages and cropping them to the images they want.
Register your site with the U.S. Copyright Office
There are several good reasons to register your web site with the U.S.
Copyright Office. Not registering doesn't mean you will be without protection,
but you will end up spending much more time pursuing a claim.
Not registering puts the burden of proof on you, the author; registering
puts the burden of proof on an alleged thief. Registering also gives you
the right to sue for infringement, statutory damages and punitive damages.
To be eligible for full protection under copyright law, you must register
your work with the U.S. Copyright Office within three months of the date
of first publication or before the date of infringement.
To register, send a completed application
form (use form Circular 66 for web sites, online works and other electronic
media), a filing fee of $30 (U.S.) for each separately published web site
or body of work, and a copy of the web files (it is best to include a
digital copy on disk and a print copy of the web files) you want to register
to:
Register of Copyrights
Copyright Office
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C. 20559
See also Why People Steal and Act
Now for Your Copyright.
If you have any specific questions about our web site design tips, or
if you would like permission to republish this design tip on your web
site or newsletter, please use our contact form
or email us at info@grantasticdesigns.com.
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