Website Copyright Rules
A client just laid out all the requirements for their website. You sit there looking at a white page and start thinking about the design of the website.
You start googling different websites for design inspiration and stumble on a couple of websites that you really love.
What elements of the website can you copy/take inspiration from? What are the exact rules for this?
The Laws
Website copyright laws in the U.S comes from the Copyright Act of 1976.
It grants authors and artists the exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and display their works. -https://www.termsfeed.com/blog/website-copyright-law/#U_S
What this means is that elements of a website including, but not limited to:
- Any original texts, images, photos, and graphic design works
- Source code of a website
- Someone’s logo or a trademarked material
- Patented color schemes
- Brand defining designs
are copyrighted.
Take inspiration from their design though is allowed. The way or process they created the website is not. For example, if you see a scrolling banner that you really like you can write your own code and copy how that banner looks. What you can’t do is look at the source code of the website and copy their code.
How does a website get copyrighted?
As soon as an original website is created, it immediately gets copyright protection.
If you want to take civil action against somebody who steals original work from you, having a public record of your copyright ownership makes it easier for you.
Having your website copyrighted also deters people from making the attempt to copy your work because they are sure to lose.
Copyrighting your website is relatively easy:
- Go to the registration portal of the U.S Copyright Office and log in or make an account.
- Fill out the copyright application.
- Pay an electronic registration fee of $54.
- Upload a copy of your website(as PDF of pages).
- Wait from 1 to 11 months to receive your copyright
Fair Use
Fair use is taking copyrighted content and using it for non commercial or educational purposes.
As long as you’re not making money off the copyrighted content or you are using it for educational purposes, you should be fine.
It is recommended though to get written permission from the owner of the copyrighted content before you use it.
Website Template
If a website is built using a website template, it does not enjoy any of the copyright protection given to custom original websites.
The source code of the template will obviously be the same across all websites. The only difference would be the colors or images used and any trademarked content like a logo.
Summary and Practical Advice
Although something as vague as a color scheme or brand design can be copyrighted, copying a nav-bar design here and a scroll bar animation there is ok. As long as you are taking inspiration from that and are writing your own code to make that thing work. This does not include looking at the code of that design and copying it.
I would suggest you look at a lot of different websites and pick one or two design elements that you love. Then look at those elements and create it using your own code. Incorporating those elements with code that you wrote yourself if 100 percent fine!
