IT'S 2012. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?

It’s not something you automatically think about when the new year rolls around, but you should.

It has nothing to do with typical resolutions, but it is something you should resolve to do.

Take a look at your web site. Look at your copyright and legal notices.

If your web site doesn’t have copyright or legal notices, that’s the first problem you need to address. The content on your site, except for what you’ve found elsewhere and properly attributed, is your intellectual property.

You need to protect it.

You need to date it so you have some basis to make a claim on something that is rightfully yours. If other people falsely pass off your content as their own or use it in a way that’s contrary to how you want your content used or represented, you need to have documentable evidence of what you wrote, photographed, recorded, or illustrated and when you created it.

That takes care of the first issue. Now for the second.

What does your copyright date say? If it’s 2011 or earlier, make a mental note. It’s now 2012.

Update your copyright date. While it’s important to document when your intellectual property was created, it’s equally important to keep those copyright protections up to date. You might not necessarily surrender your copyright protection by not making the immediate change to the new year, but you’re certainly sending a signal that you: 1) aren’t concerned with how or where your intellectual property is used, 2) you don’t really monitor what people are doing with your intellectual property, and 3) theft of your intellectual property is an offense that will carry no penalty because chance are you won’t engage in litigation.

I’m not an attorney and don’t offer legal advice. I’m a PR flack and a political hack, but I care about what I create. I care about things that I write, photograph, record, or design. I put time and effort in to those things that are, at different levels, piece of me. I don’t want to see them used in ways contrary to why I created them.

Now, there are “fair-use” doctrines and “public domain” issues to consider, but ultimately, it’s up to you to decide how your content is used. Protect it, and start by updating copyright dates on your web sites. The Mayan calendar may end this year, but your copyright protection doesn’t have to.

Taft Matney is a partner with TM Public Relations, a strategic communications and governmental affairs firm in Greenville, SC. Follow him on Twitter (http://twitter.com/taftmatney) and "like" TMPR on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/TMPRGA).

This op-ed may be reprinted/reposted in whole or in part upon written notification to taft@taftmatney.com.

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