A Designer's Copyright Guide

A guide for proper copyright credits on customized and original designs

JT Pals avatar
Written by JT Pals
Updated over a week ago

If you're customizing a site design that was was originally designed by another designer it's important to provide the proper credits for both parties.
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Claiming as Your Own Work


Any works that you claim as your own should not be derived from another designer's design.  We have free Designer Starter Templates that you can begin your custom designs from. 

Many designers use images provided by photographers in their designs and photography copyright credit in the design shall be negotiated by the designer.
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Customizing a Design & Providing Design Credit


All designers on the Showit platform who are customizing a design for a client that was originally created by another designer should keep credit for the original designer in the footer of the design as follows:
Design by [Original Designer]. Customized by [Your Name].
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Copyright Infringement


Under copyright law, the standard for infringement is “substantial similarity.” Substantial similarity means an average observer would recognize that the second work takes copyrightable authorship from the first one. - Linda Joy Kattwinkel, Graphic Artists Guild

Report DMCA Infringement


The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) protects website owners against others copying and publishing text or images to other websites.

If you believe your copyright is being infringed by a site hosted on Showit, you can submit a DMCA takedown notice. As required by law, Showit will then work to remove or disable access to, the material that is claimed to be infringing.
Submit a DMCA notice

Note: the DMCA covers copyright infringement, but not trademark disputes. If someone files a complaint against someone using the same business or product name, the DMCA does not cover that and they would need to seek legal counsel to seek resolution.


**The information in this article is not provided by legal counsel. You should consult your own legal counsel with any questions. 

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