You’ve probably heard that once you’ve written something, it’s copyrighted. But if you’re still worried, you can take some additional steps to protect yourself.
First, place the copyright notice in your sidebar so that it’s visible at all times. As you can see, I have a COPYSCAPE blurb under my photo to the right—>
In WordPress, this can be accomplished using a text widget from Appearance -> Widgets in the menu. Moreover, be sure to include a copyright note in each and every one of your blog posts (either at the beginning or end of the article). Here is an example:
© [Full Name] and [Blog Name], [Current Year or Year Range]. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to [Your Name] and [Your Blog Name] with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
This example is rather lengthy (and paranoid). I prefer author Jane Green’s example: © 2009 Jane Green.
Your wording of the copyright notice should differ, depending on the type of blog you currently maintain. The aforementioned example is most appropriate for a standard blog. If you have a photo blog (or blog that is highly focused on some sort of document type), you may want to modify the language accordingly.
Question:
What are your thoughts on Web site copyright? Is there anything you would like to add to this blog?
Oh, no! Something new to worry about?! Very informative though. Thanks for putting this important information out.