Copyright

1. 96

   gerimcclymposted 9 years ago

   Hello Hub Community,
   
   I have a question about copyrighting our hubs. I noticed that some hub authors have the copyright symbol (C enclosed in a circle)  followed by their name at the very top or bottom of their hub articles, while others (like me) do not. While I do realize that anybody can steal your content at any time, I was wondering if there are any experienced authors who know if there is any benefit in having the copyright symbol (followed by your name) on your hub? If so, how do I go about making sure it appears on all my hub articles?
   
   Thank you in advance.
   Geri

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   1. 68

      galleryofgraceposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Using the copyright symbol is similar to a person  putting a padlock on something. An honest person is going to see the symbol(or lock) and decide they cannot use it without permission.
      A dishonest person doesn't care if the symbol(or lock) is there or not.

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      1. 88

         Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         +1

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         1. 87

            Jean Bakulaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            So true.

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2. 78

   psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

   It is not legally required that you mark your work as copyrighted. Any advantage it might have is pretty much what is evident.  If the content is scraped you statement would go with it.

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   1. 96

      gerimcclymposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for your response, psycheskinner. I would like to have the C symbol on my articles so am hoping to hear back from the Admin. team soon. Thank you again for taking the time to respond.

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      1. 87

         Jean Bakulaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         gerimcclym,
         There used to be a very light, almost impossible to see Copyright C at the bottom of each of our hubs, and that was another thing the Team got rid of. I also noticed that some people put the copyright symbol and their names at the top of the hubs, but it used to be against the rules to do it. See what the Team says. I don't think it's legal to do so unless you truly have your own copyright on your work. As far as the plagiarism, most of the sites are in other countries and on blogs that have about two other pieces of stolen writing on them. I know everyone will jump in screaming that all you need to do is file a DMCA, but in the years I've tried, I only ever got stolen work taken down if I managed to write to the person who stole it to start with. Best of luck to you.

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         1. 96

            gerimcclymposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you for your response, Jean. Looks like Jodah has the steps for applying the C symbol, followed by my name. (See his post below.)
            It is terrible that people will steal your work and I'm sorry that happened to you. It can happen to any of us. I'm glad that contacting the person (who stole it) directly did solve the problem, although it should never have happened to begin with. Thank you again for your response to my question and happy hubbing!

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            1. 87

               Jean Bakulaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks gerimcclyn and jodah,
               I never thought that light copyright symbol at the bottom of the hub did much good, but also never knew we had to be the ones to activate it ourselves. I tried a few, and will get to the others later.

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               1. 88

                  Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  No problem Jean. I didn't realise that so many people weren't aware of this.

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3. 88

   Jodahposted 9 years ago

   Geri, In "edit" mode on your hubs on the right hand side  (beneath the content capsules) ..click on "Display Options". In there you will see "Copyright" where you can choose to have a copyright symbol and your name and date placed automatically at the bottom of your hub.

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   1. 96

      gerimcclymposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you, Jodah! I followed the steps you provided and was able to apply the Copyright symbol (followed by my name) to all of my posts. I will have to explore all the options under "Display Options" for future reference. Thank you again for your response! I feel much better now that all of my hubs have the C symbol on them, although I realize that is no guarantee (unfortunately) that my work won't be stolen at any time. It can happen to any of us, as we all know. But it makes me feel much better, so thank you!
      Happy hubbing!

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4. 69

   stephenteacherposted 9 years ago

   US copyright law does not transfer too well across borders. The majority of the world could care less. Just start adding up the populations of China, Russia, Pakistan, Belarus, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Iran, India, Vietnam, etc. etc. etc.
   
   I would also imagine that a lot of articles on hub are not even eligible for copyright protection. How many of you here have accused others of writing jibberish and junk? You can't just publish anything, and expect it to qualify for a legit copyright.
   
   Yes, as soon as you put something down, it could be copyrighted. But if you wish to sue anyone, as far as I know, you must have a registered copyright.
   
   Contrary to popular belief here, google does not hate copied or stolen content. Hub has taken that right for themselves, which is their right. But I chuckle when people think it's for google. Google itself even uses copied content all across the board. And stolen? They love wikileaks, piratebay, et. al. They don't care about copyright, unless ordered by a court. And that happens very rarely, . And all that does is remove it from their search results.
   
   And there's the rub. The internet was/is intended to be this free-for-all of just about anything.
   
   When you worry about your hub, remember the US can do very little in shutting down wikileaks. It's a futile effort.
   
   Funny thing about that too. Nothing the US government prints can be copyrighted.
   
   I myself just choose to not worry about it.

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      Catherine Barrettposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Copyright law does apply internationally; the countries you list are all parties to international copyright agreements, most notably the Berne Convention.
      
      I'm not sure what point you are trying to make when you mention that government works are not protected by copyright. The logic behind that is that we the public have ownership of our government's work, created with taxpayer's money. It's not a sign that they have no faith in the copyright system.
      
      As others have said you have copyright protection without posting the notice and it begins at creation. Hubs qualify for copyright protection. Literary merit is not a criteria.
      
      I am not trying to deny that the internet has a problem with content theft, particularly when works are automatically scraped. But you do not need a court order to get your work taken down (and the filing fees will not be worth it). You just need to contact the ISP hosting the stolen content and/or Google with a takedown notice.

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5. 78

   psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

   All you have to do to "qualify" for copyright protection is to be a series of words recorded on some medium after 1927. And all you have to do to defend that copyright 99% of the time is report it to the author, host, Adsense and/or Google.

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6. 28

   rizwanyounis516posted 9 years ago

   It's very true.

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7. 96

   gerimcclymposted 9 years ago

   I want to alert everybody that there is a site called linkedgem.com that is stealing hub articles within the first few hours of publication and reposting them on their site very quickly which results in the original article being labeled a duplicate. I had one of my articles stolen several days ago. The HubPages Admin. team caught this almost immediately and informed me right away. I will be filing a DMCA shortly. Please be aware of this site . Again, their name is linkedgem.com and they apparently have a history of stealing hub articles.

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