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Subject:Re: Web copyrights From:Dana Mackonis <dana_mackonis -at- NTC -dot- ADAPTEC -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 8 Jan 1999 13:12:36 -0500
The contents of a web page may be copyrighted.
HTML code can not be copyrighted.
HTML is the abbreviation for Hypertext Markup Language - it is just like
SGML, SDML, etc.
You use tags in Frame and Word as well.
You couldn't copyright a page written in SGML or FrameMaker either - it is
just tags that tell the page what to print.
So many people like to call themselves HTML programmers, I think this is
where the confusion comes in. It is not a program language, it is a markup
language/code or whatever you would like to call it.
There are many things you can do on a web page using plugins and other
gizmos to make a web page look really great (or really tacky) - but you
still copyright the HTML code.
The content of your page, yes. The graphics (if original) or the photos,
yes.
If you want to write code for the web that you would like to try and
copyright, use Java.
That is a programming language. PERL which is used often for scripting.
If you do a search on the web for copyright and WebPages and litigation, you
should find some interesting information that is available, and perhaps this
would help unmuddy the issues for you.
dana ext. 4589
danam -at- ntc -dot- adaptec -dot- com