How to Copyright a Website

US copyright law provides for the coverage and protection of websites, albeit with certain limitations that you’ll need to keep in mind. To begin with, this protection extends to any works that are accessed via a network, and can include not only websites, but also FTP sites and any files or documents that are electronically transmitted over a network. Like all forms of copyright, websites are protected when their original authorship is set forth in a tangible form. For websites, this “tangible form” generally means the text, graphics, music, or audiovisual material that appears on a website, if not the underlying structure of the website itself.

Like most forms of creation, the copyright for a website is established immediately upon its creation. However, this is an optional process of registration that can register your particular website with the Copyright Office. By taking part in this optional registration process, you gain certain benefits, such as the ability to defend your claim of authorship more easily in the event that legal action is brought against you and original authorship is called into question. Moreover, it provides you with the capacity to pursue this type of action against others who infringe upon your work.

Registering websites can be somewhat problematic, however. Generally, websites are updated with new content quite frequently. It might seem ridiculous, but given the way the law is worded, each time your website is updated on a different day, a new registration must be obtained with an individual application (and fee) all its own. The registration of a revised version of a website will cover only the material which has been added or changed since the last registration.

Moreover, certain types of websites may hold databases of certain facts, such as registered users or site statistics. This database can be copyrighted according to the rules that apply specifically to such works. The basic idea is that your copyright extends to the manner in which you compile and organize the collected data, not the data itself.

There is something you can do make registration easier on yourself if your website updates frequently. It’s called a “group registration”, which is a single registration that covers multiple versions of a website created on different dates. It’s generally meant to be used for weekly serials or daily newsletters, but it’s worth checking out the requirements on http://www.copyright.gov to see if your website can qualify for this time and money-saving exemption.