Original Content Protection

Is there a way to do this?

[Eterion]

I'm sorry if this has already been covered, im new to the forum, and im actually in the midst of building my first site in 6 years.
Im going to be launching a content-rich site, most of the material of which I wrote myself... how can I protect myself from copyright infringement? (Someone else stealing my data?)
Ive been to sites where you literally cannot drag your cursor, highlight a block of words and then copy and paste them. Do any of you know what type of tag or code I need to use for this? What other preventive measures should I take to protect my original content? Thanks for any help. =p

[incrediBILL]

The answer is simple - you file for a copyright.

When people steal your stuff, you send them DMCA (digital millenium copyright act) notices and shut their web sites down. If you don't file for copyright, you have limited rights in damages, if you file and someone steals you can siphon their bank account with the law on your side.

All the browser tricks are worthless as a simple view-source: command will get whatever anyone wants.

It's worth the minimal cost of copyright filing, trust me.

[edited by: incrediBILL at 10:33 am (utc) on Mar. 26, 2005]

[vincevincevince]

A copyright statement, keeping an archived copy with your solictor, mailing a copy in the post to yourself and not opening the envelope are probably the best methods available.

There are methods to stop you selecting text, and there are methods to stop you easily reading the text in the source. But these methods are easily bypassed in all cases.

Failing that - use PDF with the relevant security features enabled to prevent printing, copying, etc. Or even better, use images for all your text, making sure to distort them to put them beyond the reach of OCR. Flash might do well as well, in some circumstances.

[Eterion]

How much does copyright filing cost? Would I have to submit a new filing each time I update the pages within my site?
The info I'm going to be putting out will be useful to a lot of people-just because I already know the market, however, I know I'll also be running in updates and new articles occasionally.

[stapel]

How much does copyright filing cost?

Thirty dollars, last time I did it.

Would I have to submit a new filing each time I update the pages within my site?

Just do a periodic renewal; every six months, say, or once a year.

By the way, that "mailing it to yourself and not opening the envelope" thing is, to my understanding, an urban myth; it's not accepted in court as evidence of anything.

Eliz.

[Wlauzon]

I think PDF would be your best solution.

[Eterion]

I considered PDF... but one of my biggest pet peeves is when you unknowingly click on a document online and without warning it loads adobe...
I dont know whats wrong with mine, but each time I load adobe via a link, it crashes. I have to manually load it up beforehand.
Seeing how it bothers me so much and the fact that their files are a bit large, I was thinking of other options. But thank you very much for your input, as I did consider it! =p

[incrediBILL]

PDF isn't a real solution either.

Technology aside, the best protection is REAL copyright protection from filing a copyright.

A big chunk of my revenue last year was from idiots settling copyright infringment cases - I just send them a bill for the lifted material, the rates for unauthorized use are posted in the T&Cs on my site :)

To give you an idea, one idiot infringer popped $3k to settle without getting lawyers involved.

If they don't settle, they get to pay my lawyer fees to boot, trust me they ALWAYS settle.

[aeclark]

As an aside, be aware not all countries have the option to "file for a copyright". From what I can gather the United States seems to be one of the few countries which offers such an option.
Other countries (I am thinking here of Australia, with which I am most familiar) work on the principle of the author automatically holding the copyright to their own work, without having to file for copyright to formalise their copyright.

[katana_one]

Other countries (I am thinking here of Australia, with which I am most familiar) work on the principle of the author automatically holding the copyright to their own work, without having to file for copyright to formalise their copyright.

It works like that here in the US as well - all works are automatically copyrighted upon publication. However, a registered copyright is even better, as it allows you to seek damages in court. I'm sure if you look hard enough, you can find a website for your country's copyright office which will tell you more about official filing and your rights.

[incrediBILL]

The bottom line is what is your goal if they copy your content?

If you just want to shut them down, you can file a DMCA with the their ISP and the search engines. Even if their ISP isn't in the US some of them will still respond favorably but many will ignore you. However, the search engines like Google are in the US and you can shut down their traffic for the most part which is as good as shutting down their site.

If you want damages to punish the heck out of someone from profitting from your hard work, in the US filing a copyright is your best defense assuming the person that lifts your content has any money. A copyright infringer is liable for "statutory damages" which can run as high as $100,000.