How to Protect the Copyrights on a Website

You must be actively involved to protect your copyrighted website.

Protecting copyrights on a website is, from a legal perspective, a fairly simple process. Figuring out where your copyrighted work ends up, though, can be a bit more complex, though anyone can do it with some creativity, energy and motivation.



The first step is to register the copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office so that the copyright is legally enforceable in a court of law. The second step is to set up monitoring tools so you can find out if someone is taking your copyrighted content.

Things You'll Need

• Computer with Internet connection
• Valid credit card
• Electronic copy of website code

Instructions

Copyright Your Website

1. Navigate to the electronic Copyright Office (eCO) section of the U.S. Copyright Office's website (see Resources).

2. Complete fill-in Form CO.

3. Submit the appropriate payment via credit card.

4. Submit the website code and any related content (such as text or images) in a common digital format, such as pdf or txt for text or jpg or gif for images.

Protect Your Copyright

1. Include unique identifiers, such as your name or brand name, in any text or images posted to your website.

2. Create Google alerts (see Resources) for your brand name, your name and any other unique identifiers for your content.

3. Follow up on suspicious Google alerts by viewing the content and, if necessary, contacting first the site owner and then the site registrar.

References

• Title 17 of the U.S. Code

Resources

• U.S. Copyright Office
• Google Alerts