This article has been written by Devashish Jaiswal, pursuing a Diploma in Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Laws from LawSikho.
Table of Contents
Introduction
In a world surrounded by technology where there is a high chance of content theft, you can safeguard your content of a website through Intellectual Property Rights, Patent Law and your website with the help of a Domain and SSL Certificate.
Firstly, let’s understand what intellectual property is and what all types of content comes under intellectual property. Like to safeguard a website itself you acquire a Domain, in a similar way to understand the copyright policy of a website one must understand the content of a website.
How to copyright a website?
A website is registered when a domain is purchased. Domains are registered with ICANN and no one else can use that domain till the date the domain is owned by him/her. Apart from that there may be a company who requires a website. The logo to be used online must be copyrighted and the company must be registered in the name of the owner of the website. To safeguard a website one has to purchase a domain.
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What is a domain?
A Domain is a name used in form of a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) which helps us in locating a website like for example “google.com” is a Domain and http://www.google.com is a web address. Each and every URL consists of a domain name. The Domain name system management for the whole world is looked after by a NGO ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). The NGO’s mission is to help ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. Once a Domain name is purchased for an amount based on market, it remains with the person who purchases it till a year. The Domain has to be renewed each year, in case the domain is not renewed then the website is auctioned by the respective registrar or company from whom the website is purchased. The respective owner of the website can also resell it.
How to purchase a domain?
There are many websites which helps in purchasing a Domain. Firstly you need to choose a unique name and then search in the domain search box. If the domain name is already purchased, then look for another alternative name. When the domain name is available for purchase, you need to add it in your cart and then and there you can purchase a Domain name.
Also keeping fraudulent scams and theft of personal information in mind an SSL certificate is also provided which encrypts the personal information of the owner of the website which includes financial details such as card details. The SSL certificate provides safety in terms of such theft from hackers.
How to register a copyright for a website
We will read about the use of copyright for a website and what are the things that can be copyrighted. A website contains creative or informative elements which may be in written/textual form, in form of an audio, visual form or in an audio-visual form. These contents can be intellectual properties like logos, trademark, brochures, manuals, blog posts, articles or any other kind of literary work. There are also other kinds of works covered under Intellectual Property, which are artistic works. It includes paintings, drawings and photographs. Some more works which are covered under Intellectual Property are musical works, sound recording, cinematograph films and dramatic works.
Any content published on a website may be visible to the whole world and anyone can easily misuse it. But, there is always something that comes to aid in such cases of intellectual property, there are governing laws like Copyright rule 1957, Trademark law, Patent Act 1970 etc.
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How to protect your website content?
Intellectual properties like logos, trademark, brochures, manuals, blog posts, article, includes paintings, drawings, photograph, musical works, sound recording, cinematograph films, dramatic works or any other kind of literary works can be protected with copyright.
Section 4 of Copyright Rules 1957 says that a work belonging to others should not be published or used in public if so it will amount to copyright infringement.
Section 13(1) of copyright rules 1957 tells us the works in which copyright subsist in INDIA are original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work, cinematograph films and sound recording.
Section 13(3) tells about works in which copyright does not subsist are cinematograph films in which a substantial part is a copyright of any other work, sound recording made in respect of a literary, dramatic or musical work, if in making of work such copyright are infringed.
Section 13(4) says that separate copyright of sound recording and cinematograph films will not affect each other if the work is made with respect to others.
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How to protect your content?
A fact which you may not know is that Samsung was required to pay 1 Billion Dollars to Apple for Patent Infringement claims. Patents are something which is usually done for inventions. The criterion of work covered under patent works is a bit different than the work covered under copyright are discussed already. Like Apple sued Samsung for Patent Infringement an Author/owner of a copyright can sue respective person who infringes their copyright.
How to acquire a copyright?
The easy step is to right away hire an Intellectual Property lawyer who can get the copyright for you. Another way is where you can acquire a copyright yourself: the governing body of a country where IP Laws exist provides various ways to protect your content. In India, there is a website named https://copyright.gov.in/. It is a form of online portal where you can acquire copyright for your content on your own. You can refer to the following steps to know how to acquire a copyright:
- Visit the website
- Create an account
- Login into that account
- Apply for an application in “e-Filing of Application” by clicking on “Click here for Online Copyright Registration”
- After completing the e-filing application for respective copyright, make payment and wait for the status.
- The status will be approved and you will get a registration certificate.
How to avoid infringement of copyright in respect of websites?
Every Website has its own “Terms of use or Terms & Condition” and “Privacy Policy” which tells us the terms and conditions for use of their content. To avoid infringement go through the proposed terms and abide by them. In case you don’t understand any terms and conditions proposed by the respective website whose content you want to use, try to get legal consultancy from an attorney or someone who understands the terms and conditions proposed by websites.
How to issue a notice to other website for copyright infringement
Creating content isn’t easy and seeing that content being used for monetary gains is not easy. The notice for web content takedown is DMCA Takedown Notice. DMCA Takedown Notice is a form of notice issued on request of the owner of the content or owner of the copyright. You can issue a notice on your own, contact an attorney or any other websites that offer services for DMCA takedown. https://www.dmca.com offers services for a content takedown. The working of the website is mostly similar to the website for content copyright. It requires you to create an account and then provide the necessary details as follows:
- A digital or physical signature.
- A description of your work which is infringed.
- Identify the website where infringed work/content is located and add it.
- A self declaratory statement that the permission or license for infringing use of content was not given by them, their agent or law.
- Agree to the penalty and perjury after acknowledging the terms.
Important elements in a copyright policy of a website
Some major elements for a website copyright policy for beginners are:
- Privacy Policy- It’s the policy provided by a website which tells us how a website or an organization to whom the website belongs will protect, use of personal details of a person and store the personal data provided by the users.
- Terms and condition or Terms of use- It is a set of rules and regulations for those users in use of the services of a website or the content offered by a website. A user must abide by time in order to use the services provided by a website.
- Disclaimer- If someone is providing content or services regarding finance, legal advice, health advice etc. Disclaimer regarding such content or service should be given else the owner might face some liabilities.
Another important policy which some websites use is EULA (End User License Agreement). This is a standard form of uniform contract for use of content or services. Mostly it is used by Software developers to limit their liability. Eula is between the publisher and end user. It provides details about the rights of a user and restrictions on him for using the software.
These policies cannot be drafted by a layman. Big companies hire lawyers for drafting their policies, apart from that for a beginner who has just made a website there are various online platforms which provide you with these policies after asking a little information about your website. If you are working on a small scale then you can use those if not then you should contact a lawyer for consultancy as there can be a loophole or something which may not be beneficiary for you. https://www.termsfeed.com is one of many platforms that provide free generation of website policies. Generating policies for beginners is quite easy this way.
References
- “Intellectual Property Media & Entertainment Law” Book, LawSikho
- https://copyright.gov.in/
- Copyright rule 1957,
- Trademark law
- Patent Act 1970
- https://www.termsfeed.com
Links used for reading:
- https://domains.google/intl/en_in/learn/web-terms-101/
- https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/what-is-web-hosting/
- https://www.techopedia.com/definition/23885/web-content
- https://www.godaddy.com/
- https://www.termsfeed.com/blog/5-reasons-need-terms-conditions/
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