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copyright/trademarks in webpages
I have very little knowledge of computers outside of the normal email-checking, web-browsing, etc. So I decided to take a class in webpage design.
We were having a discussion this morning about web ethics, and some questions I'd never considered came up. The prof was completely in the dark about how to answer the questions, and the students seemed to be running the conversation (gotta love summer school classes).
For instance, one of the topics was about copyright/trademark use on webpages. I guess most universities have their logos copyrighted or trademarked (as do most, if not all, GLOs). So, if someone has a webpage for, let's say, University of Tennessee football fans, they can't legally use a UT logo on their page, unless they get permission from UT itself. Right? I've never really thought about things like that. But who at each university has the time to approve/disapprove every proposed webpage?
Where am I going with this?
I guess I'm just surprised that using a school's logo or official mascot, or using a sorority's letters is copyright infringement or trademark "abuse" (I don't know the right word for that).
Have any of you ever started a web page and incorporated your GLOs letters or your school's mascot? Is it really a big deal? Do people actually get in legal trouble for creating webpages that have such items on it? (I'm talking about legit webpages, not pages bashing schools or GLOs.)
Like I said, I'm delving into new territory here, just trying to learn something new.
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