Registering Copyright in Websites and Online Content

46 questions on registering copyright in websites and online content, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Are website terms of service enforceable?
• Can a copyright owner be liable for sending a bad takedown notice?
• Can AI-generated website content be registered?
• Can a platform register user content it holds under a terms-of-service license?
• Can HTML be registered to protect a web page?
• Can I register my entire website with one copyright application?
• Does filing a copyright application let me sue immediately?
• Does Section 230 protect platforms from copyright claims?
• Does the mandatory deposit requirement apply to websites?
• Do I need a copyright registration to send a DMCA takedown notice?
• How can a site owner defend against scraping?
• How does a DMCA counter-notification work?
• How does a lawyer reframe the question when a client says a competitor stole their website?
• How does copyright handle a website that changes every day?
• How does the Copyright Office define a website?
• How thin is the copyright in a website's arrangement?
• If I paid a web designer, do I own the copyright in my site?
• Is a registration deposit useful as evidence of what a site looked like?
• Is a website's look and feel protected by copyright?
• Is a website update a derivative work?
• Is content published just because it appears on the internet?
• Is scraping a website copyright infringement?
• Must a host act on a defective DMCA takedown notice?
• What additional conditions apply to the Section 512(c) hosting safe harbor?
• What are the four DMCA safe harbors under Section 512?
• What are the limits of group registration for a website?
• What did Feist establish about facts and databases?
• What did hiQ v. LinkedIn decide about scraping public data?
• What do you deposit when registering website content?
• What factors determine whether online content is published?
• What group registration options are available for website content?
• What is a complete registration playbook for a living website?
• What is the Copyright Claims Board, and why does it matter for small websites?
• What is the difference between a compilation and a collective work?
• What legal work does a website's terms of service actually do?
• What must a DMCA takedown notice contain?
• What ownership condition must be met to register a whole website as a collective work?
• What registration cadence should a content-heavy website follow?
• What separate copyrightable works can a single web page contain?
• What statutory damages are available for website content infringement?
• What threshold conditions must a site meet to qualify for a DMCA safe harbor?
• What website elements are generally not protectable by copyright?
• Who owns user-generated content posted on my site?
• Who owns website content created by an employee?
• Why does published-versus-unpublished status matter for website registration strategy?
• Why does registration matter if copyright is automatic?