• Request free online quote
• View our design portfolio
• Pay monthly option

How can we help you?

• Easy Apps for the Small Business
• Static Brochure Websites
• Content Management Systems
• E-commerce Applications
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Database Design
• Corporate Identity
• Flash & 3D Modeling and Animation
• Screencasts - Video Guides
• Professional Copywriting
• Artistic Photography
• Web Hosting and Domain Names

Services by business type

• Small Business Solutions
• Medium Size Business Solutions
• Corporate Solutions

Latest articles

Protect your Business from Copyright Infringement

Copyright is a complicated area and riddled with misunderstandings, especially in the case of internet copyright where strangely, many people tend to believe that if it´s on the web, anyone can use it. However, this could not be further from the truth, as a host of lawsuits has proved.

If you have a website, then you are at risk from copyright infringement in two ways. Read on to find out how, and what this could mean for your business.

We all know that if someone paints a picture or writes a book, the artist or author is the legal owner of that material and therefore retains the copyright. If the book is reproduced under a different name or the painting copied and sold as someone else´s work, this is of course illegal.

The same is true with content published online; whoever writes it, owns it, or in the case of having your content written by a web copy writer, once you pay for it, it´s yours. And it´s the same with images. You either use your own, or you buy them from a library.

And so you publish your material in good faith, but later on you find that your ´unique´ content or images have been published on another website. Not only is this against the law, it can also have serious repercussions where the search engines are concerned because Google will penalise your site should it appear to have the same content as another website.

So, what to do? Well the first thing is to ensure you have a copyright notice on your website; this acts as a deterrent and will also protect you should a problem arise. The notice should read: © 2010 Company Name All Rights Reserved and should be updated each year with the relevant date.

Within your website terms, you should have a notice stating that all the content and images on your website belong to your company and must not be reproduced without express written permission.

If you engage in a search engine optimisation project, then your project manager will soon flag up any duplicate content and then it will be over to you to take the appropriate action and issue a warning to the offending company to take down the content with immediate effect.

High Penalties for Online Copyright Infringement

On the other side of things, you need to be careful that your website content and images are actually unique and haven´t been copied from elsewhere on the web. Rule number one of course is if you are tempted: don´t! Rule number two is to ensure you use a reliable website designer and copy writer so you can be sure the material they provide you with is unique.

A code entitled ‘Online Infringement of Copyright and the Digital Economy Act 2010´ has been reviewed recently and the penalty for online copyright infringement has been set at a £50,000 fine. Take steps to avoid this penalty hitting your business. Only ever use the services of a reputable website designer. Make sure they are UK based and local so that you know they are trustworthy. Make sure they have graphic designers and copywriters who are able to produce original pieces of work rather than infringe on the copyrights of others.