Copyright and attribution

Questioner

I recently started my own portfolio website and am now busy with the copyright conditions. As an example, the following is stated: ''All illustrations, photos and texts on this page and on social media pages are the property of XX.'' Am I required to use my name as XX does to make the copyright valid? Or can I also use the name of my website instead? Thank you in advance!

Lawyer

Copyright arises without you applying for or registering anything. If you have made the photos or other works yourself, in most cases you have the copyright. You are not required to mention a name. The point is that in the event of a possible infringement you can demonstrate that you are the creator/holder of the copyright. In principle, you do not even need to make a report on the site. Everyone is expected to know the law and copyright falls under that. For the sake of clarity and security, in practice copyright is often mentioned somewhere on the site, but this is not strictly necessary. If you want to make a report for the sake of completeness, you can simply provide the name of the website.