Ive noticed on various establish sites they have the copyright sign with the site name and date period.

Is this something you must register fot to be able to use the copyright image? Must I copyright my site name to be able to use this? Or is this a case of just being able to put it there, regardless?

I believe as soon as it is posted to the internet it is considered intelectual copyright. The notice on the bottom of sites is just a bit more backup for those who want the security. You can of course pay the money to have the content protected further I think.

Scud, you are correct. I've personally studied copyright law and it states exactly what you did. For additional info, please read on at http://www.loc.gov/copyright/

ThirdWorldIT

Ah right, thanks guys.

Just one more question then, I take it that allows me to use the copyright logo and time frame starting from the inception of the site to the present time

Crippler,

i noticed you are based in the UK. If you check out the UK Online site or the UK Online for business site they have loads of free leaflets, booklets, cdroms, etc on this and loads of related sites. Aimed mainly at business, it will give you all the info you need and more

Everything previously said is accurate, although if we are talking about establishing a trademark, it would be a completely different thing.

Your work is copyrighted as soon as you make it. You do not need to put up a copyright statement for it to be copyrighted (you used to have to though).

Putting up a statement does however prevent someone from using the "I didn't know it was copyrighted" excuse if they're caught. Its a minor issue.

A typical copyright statement looks like this:

Copyright ?? 2000-2002 Acme. All Rights Reserved.

Now you shouldn't replace ?? with (c). Only the actual symbol "??" has ever be given legal power. Additionally "All Rights Reserved." used to be required, and so it wouldn't hurt to put it up.

This is US law by the way, but other western countries should be very similar.

don't put a date 2000-2002, just leave it with the current date i.e Copyright ?? 2002 Your name. All Rights Reserved.

www.whatiscopyright.org

Hey add... read that site you just linked to. Their copyright statement is this:

Copyright ?? 1998-2002 WhatisCopyright.org.

Thanks guys, that has all been very helpful and informative. Just what I was looking for.

Heh, the first date is the date it was created, the second date is the date the newest content was added. For new content you only have one date.