7 replies to this topic

[doogie88]

I'm looking at starting a new site in my niche.
I have some ideas that haven't been used before, which I think I can take advantage of.
Now, I'm using these ideas on a new site, which will obviously have little traffic, and take time to build.
Now what if competitor(who is on top of the niche) sees these ideas, and uses them on his own site. With all his traffic and exposure, he'll basically be credited for the ideas.
How do you avoid that?

[Randy]

As long as the spiders reach your page first, you should get first credit if someone else copies your text. And of course if they infringe upon your copyright you can always file DMCA complaints. With the competitor, their host and even the search engines.

Of course that only relates to the words used on the page, not ideas and concepts. At the end of the day there is only so much protection you get for those. But just because someone may attempt to borrow them doesn't mean you shouldn't do them.

[bwelford]

I don't know whether this comment is appropriate, doogie88, but if some of the concepts can be described within images, then it's that much harder to copy what appears in the image. As Randy says, the ideas themselves are tougher to protect. If it's important enough, you could try to copyright any new words you are using to describe the concept.

[Jill]

Doogie doesn't seem to be talking about competitors stealing his text, but his ideas.

There's not much you can do about that. Just keep doing things better than them and before they do and you can at least have some first mover advantage.

[doogie88]

Doogie doesn't seem to be talking about competitors stealing his text, but his ideas.

There's not much you can do about that. Just keep doing things better than them and before they do and you can at least have some first mover advantage.

Yes, I was just talking about ideas.
Thank you.

[Randy]

You would have to be able to copyright the ideas and then do it to protect those. Otherwise there's little protection to be had for ideas.

[Pandjarov]

You can search in google for legal blanks or sample copyright contracts. You can then modify it for your needs and place the copyright on your website. Watermark your images and include your text content and website structure in the copyright agreement. If they steal it from you, file a DMCA complaint and hope you will win the case

[torka]

Unfortunately, you can't copyright an idea.

Copyright does not protect ideas, concepts, systems, or methods of doing something. You may express your ideas in writing or drawings and claim copyright in your description, but be aware that copyright will not protect the idea itself as revealed in your written or artistic work.

Source: http://www.copyright...otect.html#idea

In other words, you can't copyright the idea of garlic-flavored dog biscuits, but you can copyright the specific combination of words you use on your page to describe your garlic-flavored dog biscuits. You can use copyright to prevent other people from stealing your words, but you can't use copyright to keep them from making and selling their own garlic-flavored dog biscuits.

However, depending on how original the idea is, you might be able to patent it. This is more complicated and expensive than copyrighting, and patents have a shorter duration than copyright (but give you more absolute control over intellectual property covered by the patent than what you typically get through copyright -- for instance, unlike with copyrights, there is no concept of "fair use" where patents are concerned).

More info about patents (in the USA, at least) here: http://www.uspto.gov/main/patents.htm

--Torka