But There's Only So Many Ways to do Something, Right?

We're often victims of design piracy. Roughly once a week someone emails us with an anonymous tip that someone has ripped off our "UI look and feel" and is using it for their own site or their own app. It's amazing what people and businesses think they can get away with. We send the violators an email letting them know they can't take our work, our words, our code, or our design. 98% of the time the violators respond favorably and take the design down or alter it sufficiently that it's no longer recognizable as our design. 1% of the time it takes a few emails before they acquiesce. And 1% of the time it requires legal intervention.

Signal vs. Noise (2007). Articles>Intellectual Property>Copyright>Web Design

Designing the Library Web Page  

This chapter discusses the use of websites in various library settings, with a special emphasis on the noncommercial or nonprofit library, such as a local public library, school, college, or university library, or those of other philanthropic organizations. While the legal problems involving library web spaces are many, the purpose here is to introduce the issues of linking, posting, or framing in a web space that in turn can raise issues of trespass, trademark, copyright, and defamation. Each area is dealt with in turn, stressing how the application of recent case law may impact the practices of organizations such as libraries in their use of information available on the World Wide Web.

Minow, Mary and Tomas A. Lipinski. American Library Association (2003). Design>Web Design>Intellectual Property

Finding and Using Art on the Web

So you want to add graphics to your site, but you don't know where to get them? Well—first you have to learn that you can't just take graphics off someone else's site unless you want to go directly to Jail, do not pass go, and do not get $200 (though your Lawyer will get at least that per hour).

Will-Harris, Daniel. Typofile (2003). Design>Web Design>Intellectual Property>Graphic Design

Web Site Framing: Trademark and Copyright Issues

Framing -- the common practice of displaying multiple web pages within a single Internet browser window -- has raised some interesting legal issues. For example, when one web site 'frames' another, the dominant site may inaccurately (and illegally) create an association between the two sites. This article explains the unsettled legal issues behind this technology.

Smith, Margaret Kubiszyn. GigaLaw.com (2001). Articles>Intellectual Property>Web Design

A Savvy Approach to Copyright Messaging

A technique which allows photographers to add human-readable copyright messages to their work that stays with the photo but doesn’t get in the way of the vast majority of viewers who just want to enjoy the photo for a moment, and then go on with their day.

Powazek, Derek. Powazek.com (2008). Articles>Intellectual Property>Copyright>Web Design

Is There a Chilling of Digital Communication? Exploring How Knowledge and Understanding of the Fair Use Doctrine May Influence Web Composing

Does law, or even the presence of the law, shape composing practices? Do fair use/copyright play a part in the web composing practices/pedagogy of students and teachers in technical communication programs as they construct web sites and design curriculum? The pilot study was intended to test the design for a larger study. The study aims to fill in gaps and resolve confusion about how fair use/copyright shapes digital writing.

Rife, Martine Courant and William Hart-Davidson. Social Science Research Network (2006). Articles>Intellectual Property>Copyright>Web Design

The Law of Social Media: Who Owns User Generated Content? (Part II)

Who owns user-generated content (UGC) posted to social media sites? This is but one of the many vexing issues presented by the emerging law of social media, albeit one of great interest to users, corporate subscribers and social networking providers alike. After all, if possession is 9/10 of the law, then the natural, lay reaction to the question of who owns social media UGC is “the Web site, of course.” That’s not exactly correct, however.

Manishin, Glenn. SiliconANGLE (2009). Articles>Web Design>Intellectual Property>Social Networking

The The Law of Social Media (Part I)

Who owns user generated content (UGC) posted to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter,MySpace and the like? How has or will the law evolve to deal with the different, and sometimes unique, modes of personal interaction (with others and with information) made possible by social networking technologies? These are just a few of the legal issues presented by the emergence of social media, one of the fastest growing — and most addictive — forms of Internet-based communication in the relatively brief history of the medium.

Manishin, Glenn. SiliconANGLE (2009). Articles>Web Design>Intellectual Property>Social Networking