Website Ownership Rights

When dealing with the Internet, you are going to run in several problems when you have an idea for a website, create and buy everything that goes inside of it. However, there comes a problem when one person has an idea and another person creates it. Not per say in the legal sense, but in a more personal sense. Such was the case of a letter below.

David writes:

A person I know gave me a website idea. So I created the website, bought all the services needed. And every part of the site is mine. He now wants a profit because he thinks it is his. We didn’t sign any papers, and it was not copyrighted. So is the site really all mine or does he own some because of the idea? Remember it was not copyrighted or anything.

First off, you need to understand the meaning of idea. What is an idea? To simply put it, it is just that, an idea of something that no work or labor has been made. Normally, once the idea is given to someone, it is complete and they relinquish the right to any ownership to anything. Just because the person you know gave you the idea to build a website, doesn’t mean that they have any rights to it. The only way that anyone would have any rights to it is if they did some work with it. This is something that happens a lot in court cases and they are always tossed out of court. Some things that you are going to have to do to protect yourself from any form of website ownership are:

• Make a contract – When you have a contract of any deal, whether verbal or suggestive, you are protecting yourself legally from anyone attempting to leave on the deal. That is why when you have the contract, you can protect yourself from having the website stolen from you. It is a simple process to do and you don’t technically need it notarized or anything. Simply two signatures are enough.
• Document everything – From the first graphic down to the last document, you are going to need to keep everything on file. This will prevent any chance of fraud or copyright infringement. That way you are going to be able to get rid of the problem once and for all in the sense of the word. When you have the documentation, you are going to be able to have the right end to a problem.
• Copyright your site – Another thing that you personally need to do right now is to copyright your site. When you don’t, the information that is on your site is 100% legal to copy and paste. It doesn’t take much to do so and it will save you some trouble if someone was to copy and paste your website and copyright it. Now you are the one at fault of copyright infringement and you will get in trouble.

In your case, you own the site based on the information that you have purchased the site, put the content up and is in every part, yours. Website creation is all based on the person who is doing the work for the website. If you are an advertiser and your partner is a content writer, then that would be considered an equal partnership and would determine you to give 50/50 profits on everything you make. In websites, when the idea is given, the person who gave it has no more rights to it because it was given. You don’t see an Olympic runner getting contested in court for joining the Olympics by someone who gave them the idea. The same goes for website ideas. Hope everything works out for you.

[podcast]http://www.lawadvicenow.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/website-ownership-rights.mp3[/podcast]