Copyright and ownership

does yoursite.domain own copy, or you?

[chiyo]

It has struck me as participating in some threads recently, that given the number of domains being lost to hijacking and expiry sharks recently that one should be careful in attributing copyright.

That if you copyright all material to your site. eg "copyright: blah.com" then all copy could become the property of whoever hijacks your site because you stupidly ignored an expiry notice. As they know own the domain, does it mean that they also own all content? They could them copy all material on your site before they transfer ownership (or from www.webarchive) and just use it again, either wholly or in part..

On the other hand if your say "copyright: company-name" at least you will retain ownership of your content.

I know that just inserting copyright notices does not mean much, but could making it explicit give and advantage to a new owner in a legal situation? I know also they have just taken over the domain name, and not goods and chattels, but could they, in any way, lay claim to content if you state specifically it is owned be the domain name they just bought?

Any comments. Lawman? Anybody? Does this seem a legitimate concern and remedy?

[Chris_R]

good point, but I don't think someone could steal your content on that basis.

However it never hurts to be careful.

[xbase234]

This is a very interesting topic to me. I have a number of sites, and I attribute copyright and trademarks to my company. If I ever lost a domain, it would a problem of negotiating to get it back. Then I would have potential recourse if they tried to steal my marks or original material.

It seems most likely that copyrights are still retained, even though someone else may be in *possession* of a domain.

[stlouislouis]

Hi,

I'm not a lawyer; the following is my opinion, not legal advice:

I think there may be advantages to having copyrights and other IP registered to one's self personally -- or to one's trust account -- then having a simple licence agreement with whatever company or website you own, run or do business with. I'm thinking licence use for $1 a year, with rights of termination for any reason at any time or something; you are just paying yourself, but it's a legal contract between you and a separate legal entity; i.e. your company.

Lets say something happens to your company....your copyrights and other IP doesn't go down the drain too.

I'm thinking it might be even better if one's trust owned the IP rather than an individual. That way, I think it would be much harder to lose it if sued.

Just my thoughts, FWIW,

Louis

[richlowe]

I am not a lawyer, this is just my opinion.

Copyrights belong to people and organizations, not web sites. A web site is not a legal entity, it's property. You could have a corporation named blah.com though, and that would be a legal entity.

Thus, it seems to me that copyrighting something as (c) blah.com is meaningless unless blah.com is a company, in which case it's irrelevent who owns the domain name.

Just my opinion.

Richard Lowe

[xbase234]

Yes to richlowe and stlouis,

I wanted to clarify my previous post. My copyrights and intellectual property are registered to my legal company, and not attributed to the domain name itself.