Writing a copyright notice

A copyright notice is a short line of text that lets the public know that your work is protected by copyright law and is not to be copied.

These copyright notices are widely used and can be found all over: from websites and blogs, to films, music and songs.

 

What is copyright?

 

When you create something new, copyright law automatically gives you full ownership rights in your creation.

For example, if you write a screenplay, novel, or even a blog post, you’ve just created something new.

Once you put that creation out into the world and allow the public to access it, copyright law kicks in to help make sure that someone else can’t steal a part of (or all of) your creation.

If someone does do something to violate your copyright, like copy your blog post and attribute it to himself, or try to claim authorship of your screenplay, copyright law makes it possible for you to enforce your rights against the other and maintain your ownership.

 

FAQ: Sample Copyright Notices

 

Here is a list of frequently asked questions that you may find useful.

What are the benefits of having a copyright notice?

Having a copyright notice puts the public on notice that your content is protected and copyrighted.

This will help keep most cases of infringement from occurring.

If any cases do occur, having a copyright notice will help you prove your case in court that the copyright infringer was put on notice that your content was protected.

What types of content should have a copyright notice?

Original works you create and wish to protect as your own should have a copyright notice.

This includes artistic works (such as graphic design and product design), literary works (such as blog posts and website content), audio and video content, software and other creative works.

Do I need to register my copyright notice?

There is no registration procedure for copyright works under Irish copyright law.

Copyright protection is automatic and arises upon the creation of an original work

Is a copyright notice difficult to create?

Not at all.

In fact, creating a copyright notice is very simple and takes just a few moments.

A copyright notice has just 4 components:

• The copyright symbol or the word “copyright”
• A date or date range
• The author’s name
• A statement of rights

 

Where do I display my copyright notice?

 

Display your copyright notice in your website footer.

This is the most common place for displaying it, and where users know to look.

In mobile apps, you can display your copyright notice in an “About” or “Legal” menu since there isn’t a static footer.

For more information on EU Copyright registration visit here

 

Do you need a copyright notice?

 

While copyright notices aren’t required by any law, they’re incredibly helpful to people who wish to legally protect their work.

Basically, anything that you create and share with the public but still keep the public from copying or appropriating in full or in part would benefit from having a copyright notice.

Here are a few of the benefits of having a copyright notice in place of your work:

• People will be put on notice that your work is yours, and that it is subject to copyright,
• In the event that you need to bring legal action against someone for copying your work, having a copyright notice in place can be a very useful thing.

Showing the court that you had a copyright notice up may help you support your case against infringers by making it easier for you to prove that the alleged infringer knew, or was put on notice, that your work was copyrighted.

• A copyright notice can help deter infringement/plagiarism, and
• You can use the notice to declare what rights you wish to maintain.

 

How to write a copyright notice

 

Each copyright notice should include 4 main components:

1. A copyright symbol, or word,
2. A date,
3. An author’s name, and
4. A statement of rights.

A statement of rights is not a requirement. By default, a copyright notice will work to reserve all of your rights, so stating something like “All Rights Reserved” isn’t technically necessary.

However, it is commonly seen this way and clarity of your rights can’t hurt.

 

Copyright symbol

 

The universally accepted symbol for a copyright is the letter C in a circle: ©.

You can also use the word “copyright”.

This symbol or word should be placed at the beginning of your copyright notice:

Copyright © 2021 LawPlus Solicitors. All rights reserved.

 

Copyright date

 

For the copyright date, you’ll want to use only a year or years. Months or days are not used.

The year you’ll use will be the year of publication, or, in other words, the year your work gets released into the public in a way that copyright law would matter.

If you create a website and only share it with your close friends, you won’t need a copyright, but if you make it at all accessible to the general public, you do, and the date should be the year you make it accessible:

© 2021

Single year versus range of years

If you keep a mix of old and new content in your copyrighted medium, your copyright date may be a range rather than a single year.

Say, for example, you create a website and the overall content is from 2019 and unchanged.

You also may have a blog post or image from an earlier year that you keep up on your website.

Your copyright date will be 2019 – “current year.”

The Amazon website uses content that originated back in 1996 alongside constantly updated and new material, so its website copyright date has the range of 1996 to 2021:

© 1996-2021

However, when emails are sent out, they only have one date – the year they’re sent during.

That’s because the email itself and the information in it is put together and sent out in that year.

Depending on the nature of your material, your date can be a range or a single year.

 

Copyright author’s name

 

The copyright author’s name can be the name of an individual, multiple individuals, an organization’s name, or a business/corporate name, so long as it identifies who holds the copyright on the material.

This helps people identify you or your business and shows clear and specific ownership of the material:

Copyright © 2021 LawPlus Solicitors.

 

Copyright statement of rights

 

The “statement of rights” is where you can let people know what rights you’re holding onto with your copyright.

There are 3 main types of rights most copyright notices will maintain:

1. All Rights Reserved. You keep all rights to your material.

This is by far the most commonly used and seen statement of rights in copyrighted materials.

Copyright © 2021 LawPlus Solicitors. All rights reserved.

2. Some Rights Reserved.

This may allow use of your materials under certain circumstances, like only with full attribute to you, and no alteration can be done to your original material.

Stock photos are a common example of this reservation of rights.

3. No Rights Reserved.

Sometimes you’ll want to declare ownership of something, but not make that restrictive for the rest of the world.

 

Checklist for copyright notices

 

What is copyrightable?

Any original work that you author or create is copyrightable, including music, websites, art, literature, computer software, architectural design and other tangible creative creations.

You can’t copyright ideas, but you can copyright your personal and unique expressions of ideas.

When to add a notice?

You should consider adding a copyright notice if you’re releasing something into the public that you created and want to protect.

If you’ve created a mobile app, recorded a song, written a book, blog post, or other published writing, or any other unique expression of ideas, you will want a copyright notice.

Where to place a notice?

The main point of your notice is to make sure that anyone who views your work knows that the work is copyrighted.

This means that where you should place your copyright notice will change depending on what type of material or format you’re putting your notice on.

For example, a website should have a notice on the bottom of every page, while a book should have just one notice, most likely at the beginning of the book.

Some other standard places for copyright notices include the following:

• CDs, cassettes and LPs should have one copyright notice on any included and accompanying inserts, sleeves or booklets.
• Promotional Items, leaflets, commercial documents, etc. should have one copyright notice per item.
• Manuscripts and screenplays should have one copyright notice on the front.
• Digital photography, graphic design and other digital artistic mediums should have one copyright notice towards the bottom of the work, or a watermark notice if desired.

So, bottom line, use a copyright notice to ensure you have adequate protection of your copy or creation.