Names have been omitted to protect the guilty.

Recently, I discovered a couple of interesting links to my CGI course. One was a link where a person had mirrored my course, but the mirror was old and the information was out of date. The other two links were provided by a private companies. Both of these give me pause. On the first, I don't mind anyone mirroring and using the information that I provide because that's why it's there. My email is intact, but none of the links point back to my course. I'm also somewhat concerned that others may choose to misrepresent the content as their own.

As for the commercial links, one was a site that offers online courses for people (but doesn't charge for them) and the other one was for the company's developers to get some background material on Web development.

I've also noticed a several .edu Web sites listing the course on their "links" page (usually tied specifically to the comp-sci departments).

All this got me to thinking. I don't have a copyright notice on the site. Nowhere does it list how people may or may not link to it. If I ever get the time, I might pitch a book deal based on this course. I have the site on my resume. I want people to know that the site is associated specifically with me to ensure that I increase my employability if I ever find myself in the position of looking for work.

Are their any legal issues that I should be worried about? I understand that the site is copyrighted as soon as I write it, but do I truly own all rights, or can others use it freely as they see fit, including attaching their own name to it? Are their any steps I can take to "protect" my intellectual property without restricting the availability of the information?

Cheers,
Ovid

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In reply to (OT) Who can use freely available material? by Ovid

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