With the increasing reliance on the Internet, advances made access to digital information tremendously easy for everyone. While this kind of digitized technological revolution is beneficial to all those who use computers in carrying out their daily work, infringers have their share in the fruits of this revolution.
Websites are protected under copyright law; however, infringement occurs on line in certain circumstances. This article will examine website infringements and will give practical tips/solutions through which the protection of websites could be secured.
The variety of material contained in a website such as texts, images, music, software and databases, are all protected just like artistic or literary works, under the copyright laws.
Different types of infringement occur online, such as:
Linking
Links function as a useful tool that enables the Internet users to skip from the original site to a different one or from one document located in a site to the other. Links are categorized into two different types: simple and deep. Simple links enable web browsers to go directly to the home page of the linked site whereas deep links bypass the homepage of the linked site and direct the user to the website where the page or document is located. This kind of linking will have a threatening result on advertising companies that depend heavily on advertising revenues since their visitors may be reduced if users are directed straight to a subsidiary page, and do not pass through their advertising pages.
Therefore, including a link by a website designer when s/he is preparing the source code of a website may amount to copyright infringement especially if the link is identified as a deep one.
Framing
Framing is the practice of allowing the original website to display and incorporate the content of other websites. This may amount to copyright infringement since it involves making a copy of web content and reproducing it without the consent of the website proprietor.
Caching Websites
Caching is defined as storing the content of web sites or web pages in certain servers owned and operated by Internet service providers (ISPs). The main purpose of caching is to reduce traffic on certain websites that are visited regularly and to produce better Internet service to users. ISP Companies infringe copyright when they copy certain documents or files on their servers without the permission of the author of that work.
Tips About Websites Protection
There are many tactics that may be employed to protect your website from infringement or protect yourself and your website by legal action from parties that believe that their copyright has been infringed:
Obtaining Permission
Before you copy any text or image you find on a website you should read the website agreement carefully. If it is not clear whether you can copy materials from this particular website then you should seek further information from the website’s proprietor.
If you want to link your website to another one or to an internal page it is recommended to contact the website proprietor and to conclude a linking agreement with him/her, especially if you want to link your site to an internal page.
In case you are the proprietor of a website, it is recommended that you include in your website the appropriate provisions regarding linking.
ISP companies should ask the permission of website owners if they want to cache certain WebPages in their servers; and they should not alter the content of those web pages.
Include Properly Drafted Website Agreements
Make it clear in your website agreement that all materials on your website, including texts, images, sound files, database, software and other contents are protected under the laws of copyright as applied in your home country; and it is also recommended to make sure that any visitor to your website accepts the said agreement by clicking on the agree button.
Disclaim any liability that may arise in the event that website user relies on the information provided by your website.
Use cookies technology to make sure that any visitor to your website is not permitted to proceed to your home page and view the content of your website unless s/he declares his acceptance of the terms and conditions of your website agreement.
Use Technology
It is said that the answer to the machine is in the machine itself. So if you want your website to be browsed without being copied, you can request the website designer to encrypt (turn into code) your valuable materials to ensure that when the user downloads a version of any materials it will be useless to him/her unless s/he has a key to decipher it.
Website owners may also setup passwords or demand payment of certain fees to access and browse the materials available through their websites.