RE: Legally binding copy of a web page

A lot of your larger sites (especially representing corporations)
should/will use some sort of content management tool that offers versioning
and can track changes made to the site. Right now, we use Interwoven
TeamSite which uses "editions" to denote changes in our site. We can go back
and view exactly how the site appeared at any given moment over the past few
years. I believe this method has become acceptable in the courts.


Mark H. Krause
Sr. Systems Programmer
FedEx Services
www.fedex.com



> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org
> [mailto:owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org]On Behalf Of Elizabeth Fuller
> Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2001 11:25 AM
> To: hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org
> Subject: Re: Legally binding copy of a web page
>
>
> Nancy Whittley wrote:
> >
> > Put
> > it in a brown manilla envelope, and mail it to yourself.  That
> post mark is
> > a legal thing, it is how you can legally establish a date, and
> is how some
> > work the copyright of things, or so I have heard.  Only when you get it
> > don't open it.  It has to remain sealed.
>
> This is often referred to as a "poor man's copyright," but it's
> not recognized
> as legal by the courts (it may indicate existence, but does not legally
> establish ownership).  The best way to establish both existence
> and ownership
> is to register the copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office -
> http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/
>
> If something about your work should ever go to trial, you might
> (or might not)
> get a judge who would use the "poor man's" version to establish
> that the work
> existed on a specific date, but existence says nothing about ownership, so
> you'd probably be out of luck.  Registering the copyright (the
> form includes
> an entry for date of creation) is the one and only way to legally
> establish,
> once and for all, both existence and ownership of the material.
> (Also, only
> people who have actually registered their copyrights can sue for copyright
> infringement and collect damages if they win.)
>
> Liz Fuller
>

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