Is it time to update the copyright notice on your website?

If you don’t update your copyright notice at the start of each year, you risk having your content stolen without a strong legal claim to get it back!

A copyright notice establishes a legal claim to ownership of the work in question. The date on the copyright notice indicates how far back the claim is being made.

Don’t Make This Mistake!

Here’s what most people do wrong: they change the date to the current year. That means you no longer claim to have a right of ownership over material created prior to the current year, so if someone copies the work you created but claims they created it prior to the current year, you’re in for a fight because whoever publishes first “wins.” By changing the date to exclude the original year you published the content, you now give someone else an opportunity to claim to be the original author of the work.

That’s not a fight you want to have.

If, however, you have a federally registered copyright, the date of registration is the date you would indicate in your copyright notice.

In the case of a website, where you’re adding new content on a regular basis, you want to establish a new copyright claim to the new and/or revised material. Do this by adding an additional date to the existing notice as in “© 2010 – 2018.” The first date establishes how far back the claim is made to any original copyrighted material and the added date establishes that a claim is being made for any new or revised material up to the current date.

Are you COVERING YOUR ASSETS ONLINE?

The online business owners DIY Legal Toolkit was created by a lawyer so you don’t have to hire one.

There’s also a Mini Toolkit that includes the 3 legal docs you must have on your website in order to protect your intellectual property.

The scary thing about entrepreneurship is not knowing what you don’t know.

Cover UP.