LEGAL PROTECTION FOR YOUR WEB SITE

Question: What sort of legal protection is available for Web site designs?

Answer: A Web site design -- like other works created by human "authors" -- is protected by copyright as long as it is "fixed" (recorded in HTML code or otherwise) and "original."

Material is "original" as long as it wasn't copied from some pre-existing source. The "originality" requirement is not difficult to satisfy; neither artistic merit nor novelty is required for a work to be "original."

Under current law, copyright protection arises automatically when an original work of authorship is "fixed." It is not necessary to file a copyright registration application in order to get copyright protection for a Web site design, nor is it necessary to use the copyright notice symbol on a Web site to get copyright protection.