Copyright Laws

"Copyright is the legal means of protecting expression. Copyright attaches to a work when the work becomes "fixed" in a tangible medium, which can be paper, magnetic tape or silicon. This fixation occurs when an expression is "sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated for a period of more than a transitory duration."

The rights attach immediately, without need for a copyright symbol. The date also attaches immediately. A violation of copyright occurs when someone without authorization of the copyright owner displays or makes an exact duplicate of the work or creates a derivative work based on the copyrighted expression.

There is no requirement that work must be labeled with a copyright notice. This has important ramifications on the Web because every authored element of every web page is thus copyright protected. There are only two exceptions to this: one is when the original author explicitly specifies otherwise and the other is when copyright lapses after the passage of time. Since the Web itself is only about six years old, the prudent course is to assume that all works found on the Web will not be in the public domain for at least 44 years."
Definition taken from http://www.rennysniche.com/
RennysNiche.com the Home of the Alphabet Gallery The Largest Collection of Graphic Alphabets on the internet.