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[ZeroTech]

I am a professional writer who donated a complex, 1,000-word article to an advocacy website whose nonprofit status is pending. I never signed away the rights, nor did I verbally agree to give away the rights. Yet my article now bears the website's copyright at the bottom.

The editor of the website did very minor edits (amounting to 5% or less of the total text) and added some pull-quotes. He also did a nice formatting job, including putting up some contributed photos (but did not give any photo credits, even after I requested the credits on behalf of the contributors).

Who owns the copyright to the text content of the piece? Is it legal for them to continue to have their own copyright notice at the bottom of it?

If not, can I force them to remove the copyright notice?

[Smokin]

You own the copyright of the work, but you do not have the right to dictate how it should be displayed and or formatted or what images should be included after you gave permission to use it. You prob gave them permission to use the work, implied or in writing, so they are probably not doing anything wrong in publishing it.

All that being said, it is illegal and a violation of copyright law to take credit for work that does not belong to them. BUT, they do own the rights to their website and to how the page was formatted and how it was all laid out. Webmasters usually put an automatic copyright tag on every page so that users are reminded that the content is protected and that its not allowed to copy and paste willy nilly.

Its common etiquette to credit an author and photographer for their work, but that's all it is....etiquette. There is no mandate in copyright law to give credit to creators for their work unless it was stipulated in the agreement to use it.

If I were you, I would ask that proper credit be given, (I assume that's what you are after), and if that does not happen in a timely manner you will be force to file a DMCA takedown notice for them taking credit for your work ( a violation of copyright). However you cannot make this ultimatum for the photographer since you do not hold the rights to the photos. I wouldn't ask they remove their own copyright tags since I believe that's unreasonable.

[Isaac]

You own the copyright of the work, but you do not have the right to dictate how it should be displayed and or formatted or what images should be included after you gave permission to use it. You prob gave them permission to use the work, implied or in writing, so they are probably not doing anything wrong in publishing it.

It is possible that no license has been given to create a derivative work.  Minimal editing to correct spelling and display the work on a web page is probably within the scope of the permission given.   Perhaps the changes the OP described go beyond this permission.

All that being said, it is illegal and a violation of copyright law to take credit for work that does not belong to them.

Just to be clear, plagiarism is not a violation of copyright law.  Falsely claiming to be the owner of a copyright when you are not might well be an infringing activity.