Copyright Law and Digital Media
Copyright law applied to the internet has some interesting issues for the Town staff, as developers of the internet content, and the users or citizens accessing the material, subscribing to any listservs, posting to a discussion forum, or linking to the site.
All of the material created for the website is copyrighted by the Town, so removal of any images, formatting, or layouts would be an infringement.
The Town has responsibilities under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as a service provider to monitor content that might be illegal, and to give the name of a designated agent for an owner to contact if the owner feels that the site is allowing copyright materials to be exchanged.
Any person linking the Town website without permission could be responsible for an infringement since any browser creates an exact copy stored in its cache.
A good summary of copyright and digital media issues, with an emphasis on the internet issues, is found in the workshop "Digital Media and Copyright Law" hosted by Blackboard at http://www.blackboard.com/courses/DMA268. This was originally prepared for Yavapai College students at the Sedona center, but is available for visitor access.
The workshop content is set forth below in the form of the first 4 lectures, in case the website address dissolves: