Why You Should Use Copyright on Your Site

Everyone should copyright their website to protect their content, including graphics and videos in addition to text. To be copyrightable, the content must be your original work and already published. You cannot copyright customer reviews, the layout of your website's format. If you have a freelance web designer create your website, they own the copyright unless your contract with them specifically transfers the copyright to you. If an employee creates the content for you, it is yours and the employee does not own the copyright. When you build a website yourself, you automatically own the copyright. You don't have to register it with the US Copyright office, but if you do, it's easier to enforce your rights. The fee is nominal if you register online.

When you put the © symbol on your website, along with the original publication date, it serves as a notice the work is copyrighted. A person couldn't claim they didn't know the work was yours in court. Add your name or the name of the copyright holder after the symbol. You can also use the current year; it shouldn't affect your copyright because you're copyrighting newly published material. Use the current date if you update your site frequently.

Always ensure your website has the copyright symbol on it and it is a valuable part of your business. Unscrupulous competitors could steal your content at any time. People may assume content on your website isn't protected because you didn't include the copyright symbol or that your content is in the public domain because it's online. Neither is correct, but some people believe this and will take your content. It's important to realize your copyright may not be enforceable in certain countries which don't adhere to international copyright treaties. Fortunately, most do. See Copyright.gov for more information about which countries participate. For more information click here https://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/eig9aa/reminder_to_change_your_copyright_year_in_your/.