home > news Did you know? The content on the web is not “public domain”
Did you know? The content on the web is not “public domain”
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I have been reading
John Scalzi’s blog for a few years now. (I had the distinct pleasure to meet him at WorldCon several years ago, and voted for his book for the
Hugo, which he didn’t win.) And I was surprised to read that a magazine editor who has been doing the job for 3 decades
believes that “the web is considered "public domain"”.
Just to be clear, Web pages are copyrighted by the author or web page owner (or both), just like any other piece of writing, art, or photography. Unfortunately, there are many ignorant people out there who don’t know this. All the content on web pages is copyrighted and you cannot simply copy and paste it into your website or magazine without violating that copyright. Even the HTML and CSS of the web pages is copyrighted.
Don’t be as stupid as the editor of that magazine. If you are not sure if you are allowed to copy an image, text, or other web content, ask. The owner might say yes, and then you’re covered. All the content on About.com is copyrighted by the author and the New York Times. If someone wants to reuse it in any form, they must request permission from the New York Times.
More Help with Online Copyright
Did you know? The content on the web is not “public domain” originally appeared on About.com Web Design / HTML on Tuesday, November 9th, 2010 at 15:10:16.
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