If you're the one that made the plot, skin, etc, is there an implied copyright, or should I still make a Credits box in the sidebar?

Some hosts like proboards have a TOS (terms of service) which implies a sort of copyright but thats only valid within the forums. If someone uses your skin or steals graphics from your forum, the violating forum and probably individuals will be blocked. I'd suggest putting it there just to scare people from from doing it plus it makes the skin seem professional. *shrug* Or could.

Also, many directories (I'm guessing this one too) will reject and report violations like that. Placing a copyright notice doesn't necessarily mean the material is copyright, however. Someone may know more about it, though. Its a lot of information to look through on IF and PBs terms of service. Deviantart, for instance at least on paying members galleries have a sort of protection from theft which a website could be closed for violation.

I don't know about how a credit will change things legally, but I put a credits section if I make my own skin and graphics and such so people know they're mine. I think it is sort of implied that what you use on your board is yours, unless "noted otherwise," but with certain things (like a skin or canon list) you want to protect, stating it's yours might deter people from just ripping. But of course, I've told people not to take my stuff and it still happens... =/

Never settle for an implication.

The Copyright acts as proof. If you slap in a copyright and the year (for example, my game has been open a year so I copyright © 2007 - 2008) then should it come down to a technicality, then you have the proof there. Also always be sure that any information that is taken from a third party is properly copyrighted with a link.

Yeah, if you're going to copyright your own site, be sure that you respect the copyrights of others if you used 3rd party media.

If you're using someone else's material, whatever it may be, it legally belongs to them and them alone. They are permitting you to use it, therefore you really do need /something/ that indicates it does not belong to you, but that person. I like copyright link backs. like if I'm using something made by... Jordan here for example, pretend she gave me... a plot. I'd write at the end of it: &copy Copyright 2008 <a href="http://rpg-directory.com/index.php?showuser=5251">Jordan</a>. All rights reserved.

If it's your own material, there is an implied copyright, however some people ignore this and will take it anyway so what I do say with my own website is in the footer (if applicable), I write in &copy 2006-2008 <a href="mailto:droberts@dreamsofstone.com">Diana L. Roberts</a>. All rights reserved.

If I'm using someone else's images on my website (Which I'm not but pretend I am, after my own copyright i'll usually state that all images are copyright their respective owner, or all works, whatever the case may be.

That way people know that it is not exactly their material to just take whenever they feel like it.

There's an implied copyright on all your original material. Anything you put on the internet you do at your own risk, however, because the internet is difficult to police, and there's no real internet copyright law (especially across boarders).

But if you want a real, legally binding copyright notice on your work, then creative commons is probably your best bet.

Well, there's legally binding copyrights and there's legally enforcing copyrights. :p

Don't be trite.

I've worked for a copyright attorney and you'd be amazed how much time they don't spend checking whether their clients' copyright has been violated.

Unless you think simply having a copyright is enough to deter people from using your material?

I'm saying that there's putting a copyright up there, and then there's enforcing it. Most people aren't keen to do the latter, depending on threats and the mere existence of it to deter copycats. But when it happens, if it happens, I doubt most online communities would actually pursue a legal case.

For copyrights, I mostly put them up to protect me than to ward off copycats. At the end of the day, if somebody's not going to remove the info they copied from me, and their host doesn't give a care, then I'll be mad but I'm not going to sue them. It's more for if somebody would try to sue me, and then I can point them towards the copyright and credits page and explain that I have copied nothing without giving proper credit and that my copyright has been easily displayed the entire time.

And yeah, copyrights are more of deterrents than preventative measures. A copyright prevents nothing, it merely threatens potential legal consequences if you do copy. Not all people are willing to follow through on it, but the threat is there. The next time someone copies could be the time they get caught and pay for it.

i think it would be silly, in the RP world, to sue over a copyright infringement. now, of course, i'm talking about your average role playing post boards.

at the end of my ads, i place a copyright date and i put a credit copyright to my members and staff for the board at the bottom of the side bar but i know that people will still go on to rip my boards. i've been ripped by my own members, before! the fact of the matter is that there's nothing i can really do about it but spam their cbox with my annoyance until they ban me or just leave it be and hope that people will be able to spot and love the original more.

for me, it's mostly just a deterrent and, since i'm not getting paid for any of this, i don't consider it a huge legal action deal to go and do anything about it, should my board be ripped. in fact, i didn't even got to IF about the people who ripped my boards because, in all honesty, i just can't find the urge to care. i pity those people and by boards are still going on so what do i care?

if you're running a serious board that you either pay for or get paid for, it's an entirely different story.

Yeah most copyrights are mainly to credit someone for their work but the problem is that any average joe could recreate the same work accidentally. That happened to a buddy of mine, Dios. He made a wolf rpg and a lot of the things that he had in it were also found on another site which will remain nameless and the owners of it had an absolute melt down over it. But the thing was, it was just accidental. He didn't think he was copying anything, he just came up with some ideas from real life wolf packs >>; Most things in role plays are things either copied from another site, or copied from... what was that? REAL LIFE!

You can't copyright concepts.