Website Ownership Rights

When dealing with the Internet, you may run in several problems when you have an idea for a website.

Sometimes there’s a problem when one person has an idea and another person acts on it and creates a website around it.

Not only in the legal sense, but also in a personal sense. Such was the case of a letter below.

Friend Mentions Website Idea, Man Builds Site Himself – Does His Friend Have a Right to Profit?

Someone gave me an idea for a website. I decided to act on it and created the site and bought all the tools and services needed to keep the website running. I created every aspect to the website.

The person who casually gave me the idea now wants to get in on the profits because he thinks it was all his idea.

We never signed any papers and his idea was not copyrighted.

Is the site all mine or does he have a right to some profits because he shared the idea with me?

Does Someone Get Profit Solely Because Site Was His Idea?

First off, let’s discuss the meaning of an idea. What is an idea? Simply put, it is just that, an idea of something. A seed.

Normally, once the idea is given to someone, 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.

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 and who registered the URL.

Generally, in websites, when the idea is given, the person who gave it has no more rights to it b. You don’t see an Olympic runner getting contested in court for joining the Olympics by someone who gave them the idea. The same usually goes for website ideas.

Usually, the only way anyone would have any rights is if they copyrighted the idea or bought the site in their name.

This is something that happens a lot in court cases and they are often tossed out of court if the “idea originator” didn’t legally protect his idea.

Some things that you can do to protect yourself from any form of website ownership are:

• Make a contract – When you have a contract of any deal, 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.
• Copyright your site – Another thing that you personally need to do right now is to copyright your site. It doesn’t take much to do and it will save you some trouble if someone was to copy and paste your content.

If you’re thinking of creating a website, an attorney can help you make sure you have dotted your “I”s and crossed your “T”s.