It’s the time of year where we change out that “© 2023” to “© 2024” at the bottom of all of our clients’ sites. You’ve likely seen the little icon and the year and wondered what it covers when it comes to copyright protection. It’s important to have your intellectual property covered to protect your business and content. Let’s take a look at website copyright and why it matters for you as a business owner.
From my time at JMU, I took a Media Law class and we spent a bunch of time covering copyright law. One of the biggest takeaways from the course was knowing when copyright protection occurs. You can claim copyright protection as soon as you create a work.
To let others know that you intend to protect your work, use the © symbol (or the word Copyright), the year the work was published, and the owner who claimed copyright. For example: “© 2024 Web Strategies.” On websites, we add this line in the footer as the very last item on the page. It is discreet, but also ensures that it appears on every page of the website.
Additionally, we must ensure that the content on our websites does not infringe on copyright protection from another when we are creating pages. Using images from Google without acquiring the appropriate permission and proper credit could land you in the middle of a lawsuit for copyright infringement.
If you host with us, we update your copyright year for you! We take copyright very seriously and take every precaution to not infringe on others’ copyright and also to protect your intellectual property as well. If you have any questions about copyright protection we’d be happy to help you. Give us a call at 540-869-5991 to schedule a strategy session.