Curious about copyright issue

[John]

Hello,

I have following questions that need to be answered but I do not whom
should I ask. So, I hope I could find an answer here. The questions
are:

Is that putting a "copyright xxx" statement below a webpage enough to
make our webpage protected from being copied by other people for their
own purpose? Is that legal people copied something from the webpage to
make money from it? Can these copyrights being transferred and how to
transfer? Through whom? Because many people don't use their real name
in net, so is the statement "copyright xxx" valid for someone who
using fake name?

I look forward to receiving any favorable answers, comments,
criticisms and suggestions. Thank you.

John

***@yahoo.com

[Barb Knox]

Post by John
Hello,
I have following questions that need to be answered but I do not whom
should I ask. So, I hope I could find an answer here. The questions
Is that putting a "copyright xxx" statement below a webpage enough to
make our webpage protected from being copied by other people for their
own purpose?

IANAL, but under the Berne Convention copyright "subsists". That is,
the creator of a work (text, drawing, photograph, music, computer
program, whatever) automatically holds the copyright to it. Putting
something like "Copyright (C) Bogus Enterprises Inc. 2002, 2003" on it
serves only to notify who the copyright holder is, and maybe serves to
deter some people from pirating the work.

That said, NOTHING prevents someone from violating your copyright and
pirating your work. But your copyright can then give you civil (and
sometimnes criminal) redress against pirates. Needless to say,
enforcing one's copyright can be an expensive process.

Post by John
Is that legal people copied something from the webpage to
make money from it?

Eh?

Post by John
Can these copyrights being transferred and how to transfer?

Like other property, "intellectual property" such as copyrights can
indeed be transferred. In most jurisdictions such transfers must be in
writing.

Post by John
Through whom?

You don't need any intermediary, just as you don't need an intermediary
when selling your house. But, IP law, like real-estate law, is
complicated and has many traps for the unwary, so if big bucks are at
stake it's wise to get professional legal advice.

Post by John
Because many people don't use their real name
in net, so is the statement "copyright xxx" valid for someone who
using fake name?

Often yes. For example, authors who use pen names still have copyright
in their works.

Post by John
I look forward to receiving any favorable answers, comments,
criticisms and suggestions. Thank you.

HTH.

For more info maybe do some web searching, or check out newsgroups
misc.legal and others with "legal" or "law" in their titles.