Skip to content

Copyright? How or if?

Post this topic on X

In Blogging Ethics

The IndiBlogger forum is now a read-only archive. Every public discussion is still here to read, but new topics and replies are closed.

Micky Fernandez
from Kolkata |

I do not have much of a concern in protecting my blog (I have a greater concern in financially benefitting from it).  The idea that someone could copy-paste a post to his/her blog without my knowledge or consent--especially if it appears to be a fraudulent website--does concern me, but it does not keep me up at night, though.

Recently, however, I have completed a tremendously long post. It consists primarily of links to newspaper articles. However, I have put in some unique effort to it and provided names and locations, often requiring additional research. I shall have a similar post next year and, I suspect, it shall be even longer.

I would like to claim ownership of what I have done in providing and arranging all that information. If I can do this then how? Or because I get the information from online news articles and Internet websites (primarily Wikipedia and TimeAndDate) am I allowed to seek protection of my work?

Replies 1 to 2 of 2

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

I am not an expert when it comes to copyright issues but this is what I know :

All creative work is copyrighted to the creator. There is nothing like claiming a copyright.

There are some sites like myfreecopyright which talk about copyrighting your content etc. But that is not true. They just take a screenshot of your posts and certify that that page was in existence at that time. But according to me, that does no help when you need to claim that some content in dispute belongs to you.

If someone copied your work, you can request / order that person to remove the content from his website. If he doesn't do, you can file a copyright claim in Google. This does not remove the copy. It simply excludes it from search results. So, you will getting the financial returns instead of that other person, which is your main concern as you said in your thread.

If you are too much concerned, you can add a right click disabler script so that people won't be  able to copy paste your work. But bypassing that script is very easy - you just need to disable JavaScript in your browser. I personally don't like websites which have disabled right click. I frequently use the right click for highlighting text and searching for it.

In simple words, I would suggest you to stop worrying about copyright and publish your articles. If someone copied your content, you can file a copyright claim on Google. 

Shantanu Banerjee
from Mumbai |

Ranjith, you are great. such detailed answer, every query resolved with your comment! Thanks :)

Micky Fernandez
from Kolkata |

Yes, I know of a blogger who has that right-click disabler script. I was not aware that it was easy to bypass.

I was not aware of filing a copyright claim through Google. That is good to know.

After reading your reply, and after thinking about it a little bit more, I realized that this is probably all for naught as I probably will never know of someone taking my work and placing it on his/her website. I would know only if I googled some unique words or phrases from my posts, or if someone informs me of a copy.

I guess that I shall just continue to publish my articles.