Registration of Online Works - Works that are made available online may contain a variety of different types of content, each of which may be protected under the copyright act. Web sites will often contain textual content, graphics, music, video, sound, databases, scripts, programs and forms integration. Most of these various aspects of a web site, if registered separately, would require use of different registration forms and content, Each of these various aspects would also normally require different archives and procedures of obtaining a valid registration. This greatly complicates the process of registering online works.

Additionally, many web sites are frequently updated. The content of web sites changes frequently. This is particularly the case with sites that contain news updates and other time sensitive information which may be updated daily or more frequently.

Another problems that currently existed when registering online works is that the copyright regulations have not yet caught up with the new technologies. This often leaves a copyright applicant without a great deal of guidance on the key issues relating to the application. The Copyright Office has issued some guidance on registering online works. However, the guidance that has been released by the Copyright Office generally does not answer the more difficult questions involved in copyrighting web sites that include a variety of different types of content.

The information that has been put out by the Copyright Office suggests that it is permissible to file a single registration covering the text, graphics, video, sounds and other material that comprise a web site. However, where music ison the web site which is not integrated with a series of images or a video clip, the musical aspects of the site will need to be separately registered to assure protection. Additionally, the Copyright Office has stated that computer programs, databases and works that are fixed on a CD ROM, must be separately registered as well.

When copyrighting a web site, special precaution must be taken to assure that all aspects of the web site are properly protected. Failure to properly register a component of the web site can lead to a loss of the benefits of copyright registration, including statutory damage and attorney fee awards that are made available as a result of a valid registration.

You should also consider carefully questions of authorship and ownership of the work. Web sites are a breading ground for authorship problems, which if not properly considered and solved up front can pop up to haunt you down the road. Many web site projects require the efforts of a diverse range of participants. A high end web site may include input from the client, a web developer, a graphic artist, musician and music producers, video producer, programmers, database creators and others. All can potentially have claims of ownership or joint ownership to the web site or components of the web site depending on their involvement in the project and their relationship to the various parties involved in the process.

In order to register valid copyright, you must either be the author if the work as defined under the copyright laws, or you must have received an assignment from the author. All of the individual listed above can often claim that they are authors or joint authors of portions of the work. Where this is the case, assignments and acknowledgments must be obtained in advance to assure that you have complete unrestricted rights to the work.

 

 

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