from [url=http://whatiscopyright.org]What is Copyright[/url] [b]Hey - everyone knows that HTML coding and web page or blog layouts cannot be copyrighted![/b] Based upon what? I am of the opinion that a layout may be copyrighted if it is actually written and/or designed by the author and has been fixed in a tangible medium by being saved to a hard drive. If you wanted, you could put your HTML into a text file and print it out, couldn't you? Doesn't that make it tangible - something you can read or look at? However, this only applies if one actually wrote the HTML coding and designed the web page layout by oneself (even if one uses an HTML editor). [u]If one copies and pastes HTML from one web page into another one may not claim copyright.[/u] It is not an original work, and may even be construed as copyright infringement. There is one thing that must be clarified, though. If you see a certain page layout and like the way it looks, you could "legally" reproduce something similar if you write the coding all by yourself without copying any of the source code from the original page. The actual intangible idea may not be copyrighted. What is copyrighted is the tangible result of the idea, which would be the layout written out in HTML coding and saved to a hard drive. That means no copying and pasting of another person's source code. Here is an example: If I have the "idea" to make a webpage about roses, that idea cannot be copyrighted because an idea itself will always be intangible. What is copyrighted are the tangible works I produce of the idea. These would be the descriptions I write, my photos of roses, and the HTML coding I created to design the page layout - all saved in my computer's hard drive. All of that is my idea fixed in a tangible medium and that is protected by my copyright. However, somebody else could come along, learn of the idea I had to create a web page about roses, and create a web page about roses as well - provided such person wrote his/her OWN words, used his/her OWN photos, and wrote his/her OWN HTML coding to design the page. Further, if such person was "inspired" by my web page layout, and decided to do something similar (similar - not identical), he or she could do that if the HTML were written entirely by this person without any copying or pasting. All of that is "legal"; whether it is imaginative and creative, well, that is something else. Now, if this person came along, saw my web page on roses, liked the way I did it and then copied and pasted my HTML into his or her own web page without my permission, that is copyright infringement, even if he or she deleted certain things and inserted his or her OWN words and his or her OWN photos. Yes, even if he or she did NOT have a web page about roses, but about something entirely different. That is because my page layout was written out in HTML and set in a fixed form, and the fixed form is what was copied without my permission. [b]What if I take someone else's writings, text, HTML or graphic image and change it around to suit my needs? I own the "new" version, right?[/b] If you did any of that with the original owner's permission, and according to his/her terms and conditions than you own the "new" version. If not you may be committing copyright infringement and/or plagiarism. THIS IS IMPORTANT TO WEB DESIGN STARTERS WHO ACTUALLY STEAL LAYOUTS / GRAPHICS FROM OTHER WEBSITES. THERE IS ONE MEMBER HERE THAT ACTUALLY DOES.

Last edited by Padme (2007-06-06 12:14:28)