[Web4lib] copyright and library home pages

[jqj at darkwing.uoregon.edu]

In general, copyright protects expression, not ideas.  But as you note the
distinction isn't always clear.  In most cases (boat hulls are an
exception), designs have at best very thin copyright protection.

It's difficult to answer without concrete examples of the two sites, but
from your description it's hard to imagine any judge finding a copyright
violation.

A plausible test, assuming you were ever sued, would be whether a naïve
judge (who doesn't know anything about web publishing) would compare the two
pages and immediately see that you had copied specific design elements from
THAT page rather than from some other.  

But lets get real.  The library you envy isn't gonna sue you.  They'll be
thrilled that you like their design.  Tell them so.

JQ Johnson, Director                 Office: 115F Knight Library 
Center for Educational Technologies  mailto:jqj at uoregon.edu
1299 University of Oregon            phone: 1-541-346-1746; -3485 fax
Eugene, OR 97403-1299                http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/