Copyright Notice

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CinnamonCupcakes©

The Calling

All Rights Reserved Copyright 2014©

What is a copyright notice?

A piece of text which accompanies a work and expresses the rights and wishes of the owner(s).

Do I need a notice?

There is no legal requirement to include a copyright notice. Whether a notice is used or not will not change the fact that copyright exists in the work. It is however strongly recommended that you include one on your work if all all possible to deter copyright infringement.

The aim of copyright notice is to:

Make it clear that the work is subject to copyright. Provide a means of identifying the copyright owner. Deter infringement or plagiarism. Where should the notice be placed?

The rule to adopt is to ensure that anyone with access to your work is aware of the copyright. If your work can be broken up into several pieces, then the notice should appear on each part. If it would normally be viewed as a whole then one will suffice.

If you are writing a book, you should only need one inside the front cover. Leaflets, commercial documents, etc. should have one on each item. Web pages should have one on every page. In the music industry, one is placed on the CD, cassette or LP itself, and one is included on any accompanying sleeve or booklet. Photographs and designs will have one at the bottom or on the reverse of the work Manuscripts: A single notice on the front will normally suffice.

Include acknowledgements for any images, excerpts etc. that you have used which are not your own, and ensure that you obtain permission before you use anyone else’s work.

What does a notice consist of?Using a pseudonymCopyright  

Some countries will not accept the symbol alone, they also require the word Copyright to appear in order to consider the notice valid. Using the word ensures that there can be no confusion.

©  

The normally recognised symbol. Most countries across the world accept this as the correct manner of displaying copyright.

Year of publication

In case of a dispute of ownership of a work, the date plays an important part. If your work was developed and published before any potential opponents then you can usually expect to win any case which challenges your rights.

In the case of work which is continually updated, (for example a web site), the year of publication may be shown as a period from first publication until the most recent update, (i.e. 2000-2004)

Copyright owner’s name

This may only be one person, or it may be a collective, a band, group or team for example.

If there is one person who owns the rights to a work, then his/her name will appear on its own. If however, your work is owned by several people then you may choose to include the name of each member of the collective, or include the name of the collective itself.

This would give your copyright notice the following appearance: Copyright © 2004 Bobby Smith.

Although it may not be technically correct (it does not state the name of the legal entity that is the copyright owner), it is very common for an identifiable pseudonym or trading name to be used in the copyright notice to afford the copyright owner some degree of anonymity through obfuscation.

Phonogram rights in sound recordings 

Sound recordings have a right separate from the underlying musical composition, and a sound recordings should carry a phonogram copyright notice (denoted by the P in a circle) for the recording itself. The standard © notice should also be used, but in the case of sound recordings this is used to protect the cover design, lyric sheets or other printed material included with the sound recording.

In our example, this would give the appearance of the notice as Copyright © 2004 Bobby Smith,  2004 Bobby Smith.

Tip: On most computers the  symbol can be found within the Webdings font.

You may also wish to increase your notice in order to clarify any further wishes you have as the copyright owner, this is dealt with in the following sections.

-UK©CS

This is the Copyright Notice All Rights Reserved under the UK law.

Please do not try to steal any of my work that includes; Characters, Plotlines or anything else in coalition with my work. I understand that some of the elements in my stories are based upon real life people and objects and for you to use these are legal. If anyone is found to be using any of my work without permission I can be eligable to sue. If you see anyone using my work please report it to me.

Thank you for reading and enjoy the book!

The CallingWhere stories live. Discover now