Copyright Aid

All content on this Website, including but not limited to text, videos, audios, pictures, logo, and other materials, is owned by CHC. Their relevant intellectual property rights belong to CHC

This is the copyright notice on my website. But actually, I have used some video clips purchased from others in my videos. But I think the copyright of the who video is still belonging to me, right? Is it suitable to claim like above? Or I should make it clear that some video clips are purchased from others?

Btw, the copyright owner asked me to add credit in video description. So I add description when I upload video to Youtube. When I embed the Youtube video to my website, or share it to somewhere else, like Facebook, do I have to add additional credit on my website and my Facebook?

Hi cindylin

do I have to add additional credit

It is worth mentioning at the outset that you don't 'have to' put any credits on your or other people's works in order to gain copyright protection. But it is highly advisable, in order to emphasise the point that you wish to protect your intellectual property and that you aren't just abandoning it. Copyright notices also help, as in this case, to identify exactly who is the owner of each individual element of your site.

So you may only claim copyright for original work which you have personally created. There is one exception and that is where someone else has assigned their copyright to you. Assignment is a legal transfer of ownership and must be done in writing. Merely buying a licence to use someone else's video or other work does not entitle you claim the copyright in it, and doing this could infringe the moral rights of the actual owner.

Secondly, if you do licence someone else's work, or indeed if they assign their rights to you, they may still exercise their moral right to be credited as the author of the work, even though you may have become the beneficial owner of it. If their do assert this right, then you are under a duty to provide that credit, preferably on or close by the actual work concerned. If, as it sounds as if you do, you have a general statement covering the entire site, you need to differentiate between your works and those of others. This could mean you have a list of different works, some of which you own the copyright to, others which are someone else's copyright, and possibly a third group which are public domain works for which no-one owns the copyright. So for example if your site included a quote from Shakespeare, or a Rembrandt portrait you cannot claim copyright in items like this. A separate category might apply to works which had been released under a Creative Commons licence. Contrary to what some people think, the authors of such work have not abandoned the copyright in their works, but have merely chosen to make the works available for anyone to use for free. However most CC licences come with some ancillary restrictions, such as the need for the CC notice to accompany the work (the attribution tag), or they may not be used commercially (the NC tag) and so on. Failure to attach the CC notice may well invalidate the licence, as would making a false claim to ownership which would occur if you used Creative Commons materials on your site with the current copyright notice.

I hope this answers your question.