Copyrighting Information

[lemon]

Hello, everyone. Recently, my site has been stolen of its content by sites that shall remain nameless. As a result, I am looking to copyright my material, and everything that will be put out on my website.

So, in general, my question is: I want to copyright my entire website. Does anyone have any information on this?

[Jupac]

US laws state the all work is automaticaly copyrighted

[buntine]

Australia is in the saem boat. The moment you create something original, it belongs to you.

Here is a Web Site on the subject: http://www.copyrightauthority.com/

There are also bodies who can organize trademarks, etc.

Regards.

[The Old Sarge]

I am currently working on the exact same sort of thing. Someone copy and pasted text from two of my pages and put them on their own site ... with the exception of the references to my company, a couple of links, and a graphic.

When I discovered the "theft", I immediately notified the individual concerned and requested he cease and desist. His only response was to change his pages so that they showed a copy right earlier than mine.

After consuling my attorney, we decided to push my claim. Fortunately, I have all my page backups on zip disk. I also saved to another disk the original Word documents with which the original text was written. Those disks, with the file details they contain will cook this guys goose if we ever get in front of a judge.

The one thing that appears to be against us is proof that his actions damaged us in some way. That is going to be hard to come up with. We can get him to remove our material, but the odds of us recovering any damages is slim.

My advice, keep ALL your work on backup and make sure the "file details" are there. Do not overwrite files when you update pages. Creat new files each time and keep the old ones until you are USRE you will not use them any longer. Do all this BEFORE you put the pages online.

[lemon]

Yeah, I know that it gets automatically copyrighted. However, what is up with the sending in 30 bucks to get registered with the US Copyright Office? Doesn't that make it "official"?

[The Old Sarge]

"Official" can be determined other ways too.

One easy, cheap way is to package whatever you want copyrighted, or a copy of it, seal it and mail it to yourself by registered or certified mail. When it arrives, DO NOT open it. File it and wait for someone to infringe. When you get to court, the judge opens your DATED mailing and takes out the documents. The date on the unopened mail proves you had the material in your possession as of that mailing. The other party is then required to show they had it BEFORE that date ... which, if they really are stealing your material ... is impossible.

[felgall]

The Way Back Machine at http://www.archive.org/web/web.php takes copies of web pages so that people can see how various sites have developed over time. I would assume that if they have a copy of your page that predates that of someone who has stolen your content that you could use that as proof that it was published by you first.

[Snitchcat]

When you get to court, the judge opens your DATED mailing and takes out the documents. The date on the unopened mail proves you had the material in your possession as of that mailing.

One other thing, don't forget to take along the signed / stamped copies that registered / certified mail provides you with upon receipt of the package.

[The Old Sarge]

Good point. I forgot about those while I was posting.

[poiuy]

Lemon -- You can pay the 30 buck and make it official. It really becomes extra cash for the Government since the way the law is written makes it so you don't need to pay anything.

You're in a tough realm when you get into the internet. How do you allow access to your content yet block access to your content at the same time?

I was just reading a post where the guy is trying to disable right clicking. Although I know of several ways around this it may be something you'd want to consider. Put in some speed bumps to prevent them from taking your content.

[felgall]

Disabling right click drives legitimate visitors away from your site and encourages some people to steal the page just because they can. Probably not a good idea.