Copyright help for the
Website Owner.

There are many issues associated with owning and operating a website. This document is meant to give our clients a helpful over few of some of the more common situations they may encounter. This document is not mean to be legal advice as no employee or associate of Genesis One and One Studios is a lawyer.

1) Some one has copied my site!

This is probably one of the more common and egregious situations that a site owner will encounter. Finding that someone has copied your site may be a simple annoyance or detrimental to your business. It will certainly infuriate you and make you want to take immediate action. What can you do.

Legal Maneuvers:

Under United States Law you, the owner of an original work, has immediate and sole copyright of that work. When you take action against a person or entity who has infringed upon your copyright, you must meet three tests in the law.
You must prove that the person or party actually copied your work.
You must demonstrate that the work copied is protected by the copyright law.
You must demonstrate that you were "damaged" by the copying.

The first test may be obviously demonstrated by simply reviewing the code, design, text, navigation and layout of the site. However, if your site was developed using parts of another work or website, then you may find that your case is not so cut and dry. The offending party may simply show that they developed the idea or design based on the same work and that the resulting work was similar but not copied.

The second test lies in the Law itself. US Copyright law stipulates what can and cannot be covered by copyright.

§ 102. Subject matter of copyright: In general26

(a) Copyright protection subsists, in accordance with this title, in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Works of authorship include the following categories:

(1) literary works;

(2) musical works, including any accompanying words;

(3) dramatic works, including any accompanying music;

(4) pantomimes and choreographic works;

(5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;

(6) motion pictures and other audiovisual works;

(7) sound recordings; and

(8) architectural works.

(b) In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.

Notice that ideas (thoughts) and procedures (ways of doing things) are not subject to Copyright protection.

However, your original graphics, written text and scripts are subject to copyright protection.

The third test is probably the most difficult to demonstrate. How were hurt? In some areas you may be able to claim that the infringement damaged your reputation or reduced sales.

Defend Yourself.

The best defense against infringement is to register your works. Registering a copyright before your site goes live is the best defense against infringement. Registering the work will not prevent it from being copied, but in the even that it is, you have solid legal grounds. You will automatically prove that the work is your own, and thus the copied site will bare your marks and you will not have to show damages as this is already a built in switch in the law.

If you cannot register a copyright, do display the copyright symbol. Do make sure you give your graphics (photos, cartoon, and other images) water marks when appropriate and unique names. You can also use a unique naming schema for your files and code. You may even intentionally misspell words, hide comments and other unique clues with in the text or code of the pages.

Next Time: What to do if your site is stolen.