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I am making a website. I have never done it before and want to know if there are issues (like copyright, trademark) and what to do about it.

For example, what if I want to write a review about a piece of computer software, or a film (movie)? Do I need to contact the creators? Or write legal information in my website footer? Do I need little TM signs?

My experience with the web is act first, think later...

But if you are doing an opinion piece there really aren't any limitations except for the use of media, if you totally slag off something and use their media the copyright holders might get upset, but nine times out of ten if you aren't directly plagiarizing people or redistrubiting copyrighted materials you are perfectly okay.

In all honesty if you break a rule, generally someone will send you a "cease and desist" e-mail. That's why I say it is an act first, think later environment. You can pretty much publish anything you want, as long as you are willing to later un-publish it if someone objects strongly enough.

In a lot of cases the creators would appreciate being informed of any review you do, but as far as I know it isn't necessary. When I worked for a company that made Playstation controllers we spent a bit of time every day trying to track down reviews of our products. If we found a review that we weren't informed of we just counted it as free publicity, clipped the article, and sent an e-mail thanking the reviewer for their review (even if it wasn't positive). The reasoning behind this was that to stay in business a company needs to grow, evolve, and improve, and knowing what is wrong with something is a big part of that.

As long as you keep reviews sounding fair then generally you won't get in any trouble.

No one can give you flak over an opinion unless your covered by a NDA.

thanx for all advice.

One piece of advice.

Make it totally right first time.

And make it easy for other people to edit it. (I mean a admin pannel with super user login (article writers)).

Then you need to code neat, and code well, code for all browsers (some uni's are like GNU through and through with only mozilla (whatever version was out in 2000).

Then you NEED search, PHP it and use a DB to store the data, check out zend.com for a tut on full text searching.

And be cleaver, use htaccess files and PHP to authenticate, then you can match username to user type and forward to the page needed (using the header info of course).

Lastly is it a comprehensive (secondry/high) school or a college etc.

If so then you may want to think about homework, or some system that records a classes homework.

Thats my advice (My MSN is bellow)

Onto your question



Trademarks need to be shown if there is a trademark. Like erm, i canny think of an example. I will post one later.

Copyright is easy, link to the creators website, and in the terms and conditions say that all works are copyright of thier respecive owners, if there is a problem please email this address (your email)with the problem etc.

Always cover your hide in the Terms And Cons.

Oh and always use © for the copyright (C) cause it is meant to be 100% readable by browsers and using (C) or the ANSII (C) is not totally legal proof.

You NEED a privacy policy, EVERY webserver program/software records user info when the get (Or GET ) a page or image. So make one to say no third party etc, and exlpain cookies and sessions etc. etc. in there for future.


As you may have Gathered i am a web designer, my main field is Systems Design and Programing, and Database programing, all in PHP and HTML.

I also do the grpahics but i prefer the logic problems that software can create, expecially around the 2000 line area.

Good luck, and MSN me if you have too many problems, i should be on often (7:30AM - 8:30AM, 4:00PM - 6/7/8:00PM) Weekdays and mid morning mid afternoon and evening @ weekends, GMT)

Regards,

- MP

Lastly, GET YOU SERVER SPECS, you need PHP, MYSQL, CGI (email piping , again MSN me) APACHE (htaccess) and FTP software.

Arrg the © is (without spaces and quotes) "& c o p y"

its this: © ?

cool!

Ok. Martyn Pittuck has confused me a bit. I am using http://www.freewebs.com and it provides me with something to do all the creating, so I don't need to use any HTML.

Here's an example - would this be ok...?

A review of GAMENAMEHERE(™ or ®) for CONSOLENAMEHERE®
This game has ok graphics and sound, with an immersive plot about a man who goes there and does that, etc.

it depends

Look at the back of the game box, or on the website Terms and Cons or Copyright line. It will say somming like

Copyright © 2003 [studio]. All Rights Reserved.
[title] is a trademark of [producer]
Font Cover illustration courtesy Fank Frazetta.

A review of GAMENAMEHERE for CONSOLENAMEHEREâ„¢
This game has ok graphics and sound, with an immersive plot about a man who goes there and does that, etc.

Article Written By Mr X.
Article is Copyright © 2003 [Sitename or author]. All Rights Reserved.
GAMENAMEHERE is copyright © 2003 [studio](Rock Star). All Rights Reseved.
GAMENAMEHERE is a trademark of [producer] (Virgin Interactive Entertainment (Europe) Ltd.)

The last 2 lines may not be needed. You need to check though, it is best to get the GAMENAMEHERE is copyright from their website so you can cover the copyright. But unless there is a Trademark warning on their website it is not needed.

Also, always put a copyright notice for any images used. i.e. Images are taken from ingame/the gamename website/etc. and are copyright of their respective owners.

Adios

Thanks for that. I won't get to work on it immediately, but if I actually get off my lazy arse and code something in dbpro worth seeing, I'll put it on my website and post the address here in the forum.