Copyright question on when offering 'free templates'

July 25, 2003 9:52 AM from

I am planning to offer some free templates at my site, witch will contain a few small letters on the bottom with styl-x on it. Is there any way to copyright this so the people who use it are forced to let this letters there and not remove it.

And if they remove it, witch rights do I have?

3,064 views 9 replies

Reply #1 July 25, 2003 11:47 AM from

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what sort of templates u wanna introduce.power point, excel, wordperfect.........??????????????????????????

Reply #2 July 25, 2003 12:31 PM from

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When you offer something for free you can put whatever conditions on it you want. Like saying "you may use this for free if you meet the following conditions" and then just stipulate what the conditions are. As far as rights goes it's the same as non-free stuff since you're not turning it over to "public domain", you're just not charging for it.

Enforcing your legal rights on a piece offered for free on the internet however is not practical. About the best you can do without a gazillion bucks to spend on lawyers is to appeal to the infringer's sense of fairness...

Reply #3 July 25, 2003 12:44 PM from

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Which could range from grateful to nonexistent.

Reply #4 July 25, 2003 1:07 PM from

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Yeah, I agree with you DavidK, I was planning to put it up under 'fair conditions', just wondering if there was some kind of way of copyrighting it.

anyone has an idea btw how much they chare to copyright a 'name/brand' and a logo?

COOOOOOLLLLL, I was planning to offer templates for a site, in .jpg/.bmp format, or even .fla files and .psd files.

Reply #5 July 25, 2003 1:23 PM from

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Anything you create and publish on the internet is copyrighted by you. You don't have to pay for the official copyright licensing. If you still want get an official copyright, you can put everything related together (logos, site graphics, skins, code etc.) and copyright it all with one payment. It takes about 6 weeks to get it registered. You send it to the Library of Congress and last time I looked it cost about $30. You can download the forms from their site.

A trademark for your name and logo is a different process and is more costly.

There's a lot of information on copyrights and the DMCA here: http://www.eff.org/IP//

Reply #6 July 25, 2003 1:27 PM from

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Here's a link to the US copyright office: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/

Reply #7 July 25, 2003 1:31 PM from

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You own the copyright, the second you finish it. Registering the copyright is another story.
You may find some info you need here.

http://www.rightsforartists.com/main.html

Reply #8 July 25, 2003 2:14 PM from

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You could track the people by making them fill out a form before downloading, so if you find that they are spreading it changed, or calling it their own, you can hunt em down and "take the law into your own hands"

If you know what I mean.

Reply #9 July 25, 2003 2:14 PM from

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Ok thanks all, I will have a look at it.

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