There are some advantages to adding the copyright, but none of them are legal... sort of.
The way copyright law works isn't black and white - it's more like a harsh linear gradient where there is a lot of space of black and a lot of space of white, but a sliding scale between.
When you put the copyright explicitly on your site, you are making a statement - that the contents of the site are, indeed, unmistakably copyrighted and should not be reused without proper permissions (or at all, in most cases).
While you receive copyright implicitly by law in the US, the severity of possible legal action is partially dependent on what a judge says makes sense. For instance, one could easily (albeit ignorantly) make the accident that something on GitHub isn't copyrighted because GitHub hosts a ton of open source stuff. If the copyright is explicitly stated, for a person to copy it would portray a gross disregard, and lack of responsibility and due diligence.
So, yes, there are good reasons to place a copyright symbol, but it doesn't necessarily change your copyright status by law.
For instance, one could easily (albeit ignorantly) make the accident that something on GitHub isn't copyrighted because GitHub hosts a ton of open source stuff.
"Open source" stuff is copyrighted. The only thing, in US law, that is not copyrighted is material that is either (a) not of the type of material subject to copyright, or (b) for which the copyright has expired, or (c) produced by the US government.
Comments
There are some advantages to adding the copyright, but none of them are legal... sort of.
The way copyright law works isn't black and white - it's more like a harsh linear gradient where there is a lot of space of black and a lot of space of white, but a sliding scale between.
When you put the copyright explicitly on your site, you are making a statement - that the contents of the site are, indeed, unmistakably copyrighted and should not be reused without proper permissions (or at all, in most cases).
While you receive copyright implicitly by law in the US, the severity of possible legal action is partially dependent on what a judge says makes sense. For instance, one could easily (albeit ignorantly) make the accident that something on GitHub isn't copyrighted because GitHub hosts a ton of open source stuff. If the copyright is explicitly stated, for a person to copy it would portray a gross disregard, and lack of responsibility and due diligence.
So, yes, there are good reasons to place a copyright symbol, but it doesn't necessarily change your copyright status by law.
"Open source" stuff is copyrighted. The only thing, in US law, that is not copyrighted is material that is either (a) not of the type of material subject to copyright, or (b) for which the copyright has expired, or (c) produced by the US government.