How to copywright my website

Is adding © enough?

[nfs2]

Do i need to incorporate a company and hire laywers to officaly copyright my website's content, images and design?

Or is simply adding © 2006 mysite.com on the footer enough?

[Stefan]

You might get some replies that are more definitive from some who are more knowledgeable, but I believe that it's all automatically copyrighted as soon as you put it online. If you can prove you created the content, and were the first to publish it, it's yours. That said, stick copyright notices on your more important images, as part of the image, and put a very clear notice on at least your homepage that nothing is to be reproduced without your explicit consent.

Forget about the lawyers - they'll clean you out faster than any hijacker will ;-)

[Beagle]

Even if you want to register your copyright, you don't need a lawyer. The copyright office has a pretty user-friendly homepage at [copyright.gov...] where you can find any information you need. Registering isn't free, but it's not expensive.

That said, Stefan's correct in saying that your work is legally copyrighted the moment you create it and put it in a "fixed form" (and publishing it to the web has been legally included in "fixed forms"). The way I understand it, registering your work with the coyright office gives you two possible benefits - (1) If you end up suing someone for copyright infringement you can sue them for punitive damages in addition to real damages; without the registration you can only sue someone for what their use of your work actually cost you in real dollars. (2) If you do have a legal fight with someone over who created the work, your registered copyright will give you a proven date to show that you were the original owner.

If those two things aren't huge concerns to you, you don't legally need to do anything. But it's certainly a good idea to put copyright notices on your work for people who don't understand that.

Of course, there are lots of people using the web who don't pay any attention to copyright and will take and use your stuff anyway. No kind of copyright notice will stop them (there are other methods to try, and action to take if you catch them, but that's a whole other topic - or several other topics!). But there are also lots of people - especially young ones - using the web who are simply unaware that your material is, in fact, your material and they can't legally use it without asking you. The way I look at it, those are the people your copyright notices are for.

ETA: I just noticed the incorporation question. I don't know much about that side of things, but you certainly don't need to incorporate to copyright something. I copyright all my work as an individual (in my name) not in my site's name.

[luckychucky]

Beagle has it right. I would only add that because I have been blessed enough to almost unmovably, seemingly permanently occupy the number one SERP spot for a slew of money keywords in my trade, a constant brigade of content thieves rips off my text - often verbatim, often while neglecting to remove all mentions of my company name(!). Most are overseas, but a few are in the States. For me, official copyright registration bestows a kind of maniacal power once I catch them with their pants down. I can really put the fear of God into 'em. They're sitting ducks. It makes things irrefutable and puts the power for massive, destructive and merciless revenge in my hands. Bwaaah ha ha. And it's only 30 bucks. What a deal.