panic.com/extras/ripoff.
Unfortunately, deceitful web designers are often to blame. Many companies have been
ignorantly sold an ???original??? design, only to find it was stolen from another site. Despite
the fact that they had no idea that their freelance designer had less moral fiber than most
third-world government officials, the company is still liable for damages if the copyright
holder ever pursues legal action.
In order to confidently pursue legal action, however, the copyright must be registered.
Officially submitting the document to the government has several key advantages:
Once a website is copyrighted, there is an official date of registration. Any copyright
infringements occurring after this date are easy fodder for legal action since it
can be easily proven whose content and design was registered first.
Without registration, pursuing legal action can be very difficult. While it is possible,
it??™s kind of like playing the lottery??”a lot of people try but turn up empty-handed
at the end of the day.
If a work is registered at least three months before the infringement (or within
three months from the time of publication), the original party can collect statutory
damages; otherwise, only actual damages can be reconciled.
Pages:
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531