Should You Copyright Your
online Material?

Your business is your creation and so, for most small businesses, is the online material such as Web pages, logos, and marketing materials used to communicate your business services and products to the world.

Because that material is original with you, you should consider formally copyrighting it. Generally speaking, original material is considered to be copyrighted at the moment that it is put in a fixed, tangible medium of expression. Formal copyright registration, including recovery of attorneys fees and punitive damages against the infringee with the United States Copyright Office, provides additional legal protections beyond those that accompany mere creation.

A copyright gives you the following protections:

• Clear ownership of your original material for your life, and 70 years after your death
• Exclusive rights to copy and distribute your material
• The right to create additional content based on your initial copyrighted material
• The right to use the © symbol
• Proof of ownership and legal authority to sue over copyright infringement or violations
• The right to sell or assign your copyrighted material to others.

Each of these protections is valuable, even more so in the online world where material can all too easily be copied and transmitted with just a click or two of a mouse. Fortunately, it's just as easy to acquire a copyright for the original content on your Web site.

Just as a book's copyright includes all of the pages in between its covers, the copyright for your Web site covers all of its pages (although large changes to the content of those pages should be addressed with additional copyright applications).

The copyright process can be accomplished either through a copyright attorney or via an online business such as Network Solutions' partner MyCorporation.com for a small fee plus the registration fees charged by the Copyright Office.

With MyCorporation.com, for example, the process involves:

• Filling out an online copyright registration form
• MyCorporation.com then takes care of all necessary forms and filings with the United States Copyright Office
• Completed and approved forms will be returned to you for your signature before forwarding the forms and materials to the copyright office for deposit
• Copies of the final forms will be sent to you

And that's it.

Considering the amount of effort and originality you've put into your Web materials, shouldn't you consider copyright registration to protect them?