I've been developing a site for the past year and I'm getting ready to launch within the next month or so. I have been wondering about legal issues and what i need to do to protect my content. The information is going to be free for anyone to access and view, but what I'm worried about is larger corporations with more financial means seeing what I have done and implementing it on their site or even developing a program that is like what i have created and saying that it was all them and that they've been working on the "same" project, thus eliminating me from the market. Basically what I'm needing to know is how do I protect what I have worked so hard on for the past year so that some larger company can't come in and completely highjack my project from me....if someone could shed some insight on this topic i would be able to rest easier at night.
You can't protect ideas. If they can do the same idea as you then you just have to compete and be better. Business ideas are copied all the time. If there was some unique process you invented you could apply for a patent.
So there's really nothing to do as far as protecting the idea...ok I guess I can live with that. My biggest concern is credit...I'm not going to be a happy camper whenever another company copies what I have done and says it was their idea...but from what I'm gathering there's no way to put that matter to rest either. If all of this is true then when I'm ready to launch what do I need?...nothing?....this scares me...