14 years
I wonder if there is any legal process required to copyright (and place the copyright notice and its symbol) a web site/page. Or if it is simply a matter of just writing the copyright notice and symbol in your web site/page.
Just adding a copyright notice to the footer of webpages will copyright them.
But I was wondering, since there is no authority responsible for recording it all, if someone steals (copies) most of your web page (layout, colors, maybe a similar logo, etc.), who would determine who stole from whom? Which page existed first? (I could have a very old web site, but with new attractive pages copied from another competitor.)
If someone copies your website, a quick "polite-but-firm" e-mail will usually solve it. Sometimes the copier doesn't realize that they can't just copy content.
If that doesn't work, you can contact the copier's Web hosting and domain registration companies and file a complaint. Theose companies usually have terms of service against their customers posting copyrighted material, and they will typically be able to determine who posted the content first.
Google Alerts are a great way to monitor the web for copied content. Copyscape is good too.
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