The work of website designers is protected under copyright law like any other creation. Copyright is the ownership of an intellectual property within the limits stated by a nation's or international law. Laws vary on copyright from country to country, but there are also international laws that protect web designers like everyone else. The copyright law in the United States for an example states "that the owner of a property" (whether it is web designers, artists, or anyone else) "has the exclusive right to print, distribute, and copy the work, and permission must be obtained by anyone else to reuse the work in these ways".
For web designers or anyone else, their work is protected from the moment that it is completed. Creators, writers, artists or website designers for instance, don't even have to register their work to have it protected under copyright laws. Copyright laws cover a person's work whether it was published or not. Copyright laws were up in the air to some when it came to the Internet and the work of website designers and others for a lot of people. Many people assume that because something is on the Internet it must be public property.
Even some website designers and others wondered if the law covered their work. The answer is not to assume that everything that is posted on the Internet is public domain just because it doesn't say that it isn't. Website designers and others on the Internet are covered by international copyright law. Most countries and international laws continue to protect website designers and others for a period of fifty years past the death of the creator. United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and most international laws are similar when it comes to copyright. While copyright usually belongs to the authors, writers, or website designers for instance, if the work was done for work for hire, the ownership is transferred to the employer.
A person that wants to protect their work and to build a better case for copyright protection should register their work with a copyright office. If a person hires web designers or others to create a web site or for other work they should make sure that there is a contract stating who the copyright belongs to. Besides registering your work, a person should also place a notice on your work such as copyright and the date or C and the date if you do not want people to copy your work.
If you would like to allow users to be able to use some of your material and print it or distribute it, but not all of your work, you should note that in your copyright notice. On websites and for that matter, all other places, although facts are not necessarily protected by copyright, everything that pertains to the facts is including the conclusion that you come to from those facts. In general, most web sites are there to provide information to the public. Most sites have no problem of users print their material or redistributing it, and will say so in their copyright notice. The main thing is to not assume it first and check it out to make sure.