Just looking for some opinions and advice on how one can protect a unique website idea in the best way possible. I know its difficult, but I have heard individuals taking a picture of their unique site layout and filing a copyright on it....what other things come to mind?
Well I have many pages. I usually contact my comany lawyer then my copywriter. Not everone earnes 6 figures so, i would suggest trying to outsource people likee on odesk on good copywriters for like $20. CHEAP!!!
good question, i have very good idea and want to outsource. So I'm afraid of idea leak to the big guy
(1) "Copyright does not protect ideas, only their expression or fixation." (Source) (2) (FORTUNE Small Business) -- Dear FSB: Can you patent or copyright an idea for a website? - Theresa Nguyen, Brooklyn, N.Y. Dear Theresa: "The short answer to the question is you can't patent an idea," said Jennifer Rankin Byrne, spokeswoman for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. If your idea is to, for example, open an online pet store, you can't patent or copyright it. However, if what you're looking to patent is what's considered a "business method," you might be able to, she said. (Source)
Exactly. Copyrights are funny things. I would encourage any budding writer to do some real research into the whole field of copyrighting. It's invaluable, at the moment you realize you need to be protected. If you don't have the knowledge before that moment, you're pretty much left open and unprotected. It used to be easy with paper: Mail yourself a copy (so it has a dated postmark), file it, and never open it. Much tougher on the Web.
From my experience on hiring contractors from oDesk, what you pay is what you get. If you pay $20 for a copywriter, don't expect it to be be supreme copy. Just to let you know.
For whatever it's worth, you have posted this in the wrong Category. Copyright has nothing to do with copywriting, which is what this forum is for. If you read the "Sticky" at the top of this category it explains all and mentions that you could get an infraction if you keep this up. Just saying.
Well you can't copyright it, make sure you launch it only when you are ready and have a decent marketing budget otherwise someone will see your site like the idea and launch their own version with a big promotional budget behind it to ensure everyone finds out about their site before they've even heard of yours.
LOL the idea of facebook was already taken from Myspace/Friendster and re-sculpted a little. Dacousin, you are probably right. It is more about having a "brandable" domain name and a good promotion towards that brand name more than anything. If people as a mass can mentally "relate" the site and its idea to your domain name/brand name, then it becomes very difficult to copy that idea and throw it on a new brand nobody has relation to. On top of that, if you have records showing and dating your site's launch and its originality through early screen shots, you can probably give the other website a hard time in court (if your budget allows). Maybe you will get lucky and the judge will rule "possibility of confusion" on your competitor who released their site after yours.
That's it simple COPYRIGHT and this is COPYWRITING, nothing to do with copyright issues, but after 26 days and nobody made OP aware this question was posted in the wrong section. So you got the wrong end of the stick... *** sigh ***