COPYRIGHT IS NOT JUST FOR THE PROFESSIONAL WRITERS OR PHOTOGRAPHERS. YOUR WEB SITE HAS VALUE. YOU CAN PROTECT IT.
Inspired by C Tann-Starr who writes about the electronic copyright registration process,
I am not an expert. I am not an attorney and the below is not intended as legal advice. The below represents my experience protecting my online advertising content. I receive many inquiries from ActiveRain friends about an experience they have had when they've discovered that a competitor is using their content on a competing web page. My first question is usually, did you register your web page, image, photo, etc. with the copyright office. The answer has always been "no".
If you are a real estate agent or broker engaged in online marketing of your services, you may have discovered that another web site contains blocks of content or photographs or reports that you wrote or compiled and published on your web page.
Below are some ideas for what may be registered to protect your online advertising. 
A web site. That part of your web site that contains original content can be registered. You wrote it. You own it. You don't want to see your content on a competitor's web site.
Photographs. You shot them. You own them. You don't want to see them on a competitor's web site.
Graphic images. You designed them or created them or hired someone to produce them for you for a fee. You own them. You don't want to see them on a competitor's web site.
Demographic reports. You compiled the data. You published the reports on your web site. You own them. You don't want to see your demographic reports on a competitor's web site.
Market reports You compiled the data. You published the reports on your web site. You own them. You don't want to see your demographic reports on a competitor's web site.
and more. All may be worthy of copyright protection.
What can be copyright protected. All of the above.
What cannot be copyright protected are ideas and data. If you have an idea for a web page, don't just think it, write it. If you have collected interesting data about your market area, compile that data into an organized report and it may be worthy of copyright protection. Don't just copy and use reports that have been compiled by another, collect the original data, organize it into a report format and publish it. That report may be worthy of copyright protection.
Once published, you have the material to capture or print and register with the U.S. Copyright office. Once registered, you have powerful copyright protection from the plagiarizers and copyright thieves who are simply too lazy or opportunistic to create their own original advertising content.
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(1) Except as provided by clause (2) of this subsection, the copyright owner may elect, at any time before final judgment is rendered, to recover, instead of actual damages and profits, an award of statutory damages for all infringements involved in the action, with respect to any one work, for which any one infringer is liable individually, or for which any two or more infringers are liable jointly and severally, in a sum of not less than $750 or more than $30,000 as the court considers just. For the purposes of this subsection, all the parts of a compilation or derivative work constitute one work. (emphasis added)
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If you've invested time, resources and energy into the development of online advertising to promote your real estate services to consumers, you do not want to see your content on a competitor's web site. It is not a compliment when a competitor steals your original content and uses it in their advertising to compete with you. You are justified to feel outrage. I do.
Legal representation to pursue a copyright infrinter is expensive. Attorneys, to the best of my knowledge, do not take copyright cases on a contingent fee basis. My attorney sends me a bill monthly and I pay it monthly. Good legal representation is simply a cost of doing business.
Courtesy, Lenn Harley, Broker, Homefinders.com, 800-711-7988.
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