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The
first thing we look for upon entering your site is whether or not
your site is violating copyright. This is the area where so
many people fall short and lose out on the opportunity of winning
an award. A very simple "rule of thumb" to follow
is this: If it wasn't made by or written by you, you CANNOT
use it unless you have the written permission of the person who
created it. This includes stories, poems, graphics, etc.,
anything that you want to use in the creation of your site.
There are many sites who will allow you to use their creations,
but it requires the extra commitment on your part to go the extra
mile to get their permission.
An example would
be: Someone has sent you a beautiful poem via email.
You love it and you want to use it on your site but you don't know
who wrote it. Many people will just use it with the
statement "Author Unknown". This is considered
copyright violation. You need to search for the
author. The best way to do this is to start with a search
engine such as Google,
Search.com,
etc. Do a search on the title of the information you wish to
use. Most times that search engine is going to come up with
places for you to begin looking. It may even lead you to the
author's site where there is a contact link for you to request
permission. If you do get the permission of the author, post
it on your site and then file
it away in a safe place in case a question ever comes up about it
in the future, you have a way to protect yourself. If the
author does not give you permission to use it, then don't use it
under any circumstances.
Another area
where people fall short is in using a blanket statement such as,
"If any of the graphics or information on this site belongs
to you, please let me know and I will remove them."
This statement does not protect you from being in copyright
violation and your site will be disqualified from receiving our award.
Another one of
the biggest
copyright violations we find during evaluations would be in the
area of music. Many people like to use music on their
website. They go to a midi site and grab a popular song that
they love, or they record their favorite song off their own
CD. As soon as they attach the song to their site,
they're in copyright violation.
In order to use a
piece of music on your site, you MUST have written permission from
the writer of the song. In the case of midi files, you have
to have the permission of the writer of the song, and the permission of the person who sequenced the midi.
But, don't be
discouraged. There are several midi sites owned by the
writers of their own music and they love for people to use their
music on their personal websites. They will send you their
written permission, it only takes the extra effort on your part to
write and ask for it. We have provided some of these
free music sites for you on our Webmaster
Resources page.
In closing, the
following are a sampling of copyrighted items which we come across
every day and will cause your site to be in copyright violation,
thus causing your application for our award to be disqualified:
| Disney
Characters |
Looney
Tunes/Warner Bros. |
| Pokemon
Characters |
South
Park |
| Brand
Logos |
Pictures
of Money |
| Copied
Short Stories |
Full
Versions of Books |
| Unauthorized
Use of Music |
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