• Copyright notices – These notify viewers that the material is copyright protected. The notice should be obvious, legible and on every page.  The notice should include the © symbol, the owner’s name and the first date of publication, e.g. “Copyright © John Smith 2005” or “Copyright © 2005 University of Cambridge”. 
• Express statements– An easily accessible Terms of Use section or page should set out the extent to which you wish to allow users to use your copyright material without further permission.  A simple “All rights reserved”conveys that permission must be sought to use your work, however you may also like to add a statement along the lines that “any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re- recording will infringe copyright”.  For a detailed Terms of Use example see Appendix C of http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/cam-only/offices/legal/copyright/copyright.pdf.  See also, as an example, the statement on the MOMA site under “About this site”(http://www.moma.org). Further guidance can be obtained from the creative commons site (http://creativecommons.org/worldwide/uk/).  Creative Commons is an initiative which helps authors to publish their work online while letting others know exactly what they can and can't do with the work.  Creative Commons aims to provide a fast, easy and user-friendly way to deal with copyright.  Creative Commons licences allow authors to retain the copyright but allow people to copy and distribute the work provided the author is given credit and only on the conditions specified by the author.   
• Digital protection– Some popular digital protection options are:
  • Watermarking– A digital watermarking system embeds an image and/or copyright information into the pixels of your work.  Some of these systems also provide a means of discovering who may have copied your image and where they may have put it, anywhere on the web.  On screen, the viewer cannot see the watermark while on your site, but if the image is placed on another website the watermark with its copyright information will appear. 
  • Encryption– This is a way of protecting the content of your web page, although nobody but your intended viewers can see your image / work. Accordingly, you must provide the decoding key to each person who wishes to view your site.  In effect, then, this is of similar effectiveness to placing your site in a password protected area (see below). 
  • Flash– Flash software enables graphics and texts to be placed in a special format that around 90% of Internet users can see.  You can choose to protect Flash files to prevent copying and pasting and even printing.  There are now simple programmes that convert PowerPoint to flash for more protection as well as faster download.  However, there is no way of preventing others using the entire Flash file and it is still possible to copy individual graphics. 
  • Acrobat PDF– PDF files can require a password to be opened and can prevent printing or copying graphics. But once open there are ways to copy the information (though, of course, people can photocopy a book too). 
  • Password protect – It possible to password protect your site and you should contact the University Computing Service (http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/) to arrange this.  Password protection restricts access to those who are able to supply a login name and password.  Of course, people can give others their password and mere password protection will not limit what a user can do once they have successfully entered the site.  Asking users to agree to terms and conditions (for example not to copy or otherwise use the material on your site) is also a good idea, although enforcing these terms and conditions can be time consuming and costly.  

None of these systems is fool proof, particularly in this age of computer hackers, although each provides at least some degree of protection.  Unfortunately, however, if a computer savvy person is determined to copy material on your site it is likely that they will find a way. 

• Supporting evidence to assist any claim you make in case of a dispute– Keep as much of the background work as you can (e.g. drafts) as this can be valuable in demonstrating the development of your ideas and therefore proof of copyright ownership.  If you are particularly worried about proving that your work existed at a particular point in time you may consider sending a copy of the work to yourself via registered post, and then leaving the envelope unopened on its arrival. 
• Registration – To prove your work was created before a certain date, and to give stronger supporting evidence, you may wish to register your work with the UK Copyright Service who can substantiate your claim in case of a dispute.  The current charges for registration are £35.00 for 5 years, and £60.00 for a 10 year registration period. Once registered, you may also advise of this on your web page as an extra deterrent against infringement.  For further information see Should I use an unofficial copyright register? and the UK Copyright Service (http://copyrightservice.co.uk/).