Question: What should I know about copyright and the web?

Answer: If you don't have permission it is basically illegal to copy anything from the internet. If you have permission the source should be given.

You should assume all works online are copyrighted unless otherwise noted. That includes (but is not limited to) design, images, movies, text, sounds, etc.

Another thing that you should remember is that sometimes people do not have the authority to give you permissions for using stuff from their site. Sometimes they don't have the proper permissions themselves. One example of this is M.C. Escher backgrounds. M.C. Escher pictures are copyrighted and they have aggressively sought out and removed unauthorized pictures from the web in many instances. There are still sites that have these listed in their public use directories.

Answer: Not without permission. Because the internet contains freely available information - this DOES NOT make that information public domain. Most (if not all) works distributed over the internet are protected by copyright. Many sites have a permission statement outlining the acceptable use of their information.

Answer: No clear answer here. The proper think to do is to contact the owner of the site and ask for their permission to link to their site. Can you link to this site? Sure.

Answer: It's as easy to copy stuff off the web as it is to view - so it's basically up to the goodness of the users to do what is right. There is little that anyone can do to prevent someone from copying your work from a web site. If you run across something that is yours somewhere on the internet and you didn't authorize it - send them an e-mail and ask them to remove it.

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