The rules for publishing on the web are the same for publishing in printed material (or English 101 on paper writing for that matter). No form of plagiarism is permitted (i.e. you can't steal or borrow anyone else's idea and say it is your own) You must properly credit where you got ideas, quotes, or information from. Nor can you violate someone's copyright. It would be best to assume that everything on the web is copyrighted unless the author has a disclaimer/waiver on the material saying that you can "publish it".
Visuals on the Web. Again the same rules hold true for Web publishing as it does for print publishing. You can not put anyone's image/their picture on the web unless you have their written permission (press photographers have to have folks sign forms/waivers in order to use their image). You will also have to see who owns the copyright to the image. Many times photographers retain their right to an image. This often holds true even if the person commissioned the photographer to shoot the image!!
Original Materials. Once again, the same holds true with publishing in print material as it does with Web publishing. If you hire a writer, photographer, graphic designer, etc.. for your web site- you will need to have a contract with them spelling out who owns the copyright and who has the right to use the material, etc. It might be best to look up intellectual property rights contracts at the library.
Web Sites worth checking out on web publishing:
"Copyright
Guidelines for Web publishers". by Robyn Fitzz. MIT Tech Talk, p7
Jan 14th 98.
Works in the Public Domain
(i.e. you don't need permission to use the images/text)
http://www.benedict.com/Info/law/publicDomain/publicDomain.aspx
The copyright site
www.benedict.com/
For information on intellectual
property law for Multimedia and Web Developer see the Electronic Frontier
Foundation's web site.
www.eff.org
Internet Law Simplified: Helpful Articles for Writers
and Publishers:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1998/jan14/copyguide.html
