Copyright on the internet is a difficult issue, which no major brand (record label, production company, games manufacturer or author) has managed to comprehensively resolve. Being International, the internet has no common laws. DU Poetry has a policy (as outlined in the terms and conditions shown when members join) to remove copyrighted material which has been posted here, within a reasonable time frame, from when it was brought to out attention by the copyright owner, and to ban any members who persistently submit such material.

With regards to protecting the content which is published here by members, it is clearly stated on each poem page "All poetry remains the property of the writer. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission". When you submit a poem you will also see the message "Your poems remain your property. You're just agreeing to allow it to be posted on Deep Underground Poetry". So you may ask, what's to stop someone copying and pasting your work and using it for something else? Well nothing, and there is no website that can offer you this kind of protection. There are fancy ways to stop people from right clicking on a page and so forth, but all of these can easily be bypassed by someone who has the mindset to do so. However, it’s not all doom and gloom; one of the benefits of poetry in this respect is that, with few exceptions, it is an art form with little commercial value (write poetry for love not money). Therefore, it's unlikely that someone would steal poems they found on the internet in order to pursue financial gain. It is far more likely that someone would take the work, because they thought it was really good, and they want to try and pass it off as their own to gain notoriety. One of the best ways to protect your work from this is to keep it posted up on an established website like Deep Underground Poetry, and keep your registered email address up to date. This is because we store the publication date and every subsequent modification date for all poems included in this site. That way, if you ever did find yourself challenging someone for using your work without your permission, the fact that it was posted on DU Poetry would serve to assist your case. Keeping your writing here connects you with your work (and the date when you submit it). In conclusion, it's a matter of personal choice; sharing on the internet has its benefits and its problems. You can choose whether or not to share your thoughts and ideas with the world, in much the same way as you can choose whether or not to open your front door in the morning and step outside…