I'm currently running a web development business, based in Australia, and one of my mates who lives in the states asked me an interesting question the other day. He asked me how much protection i would get if someone in the states ripped one of my designs.

I'm not extremely worried about international stealing my work, as most of the criminals are merely 12- 15 year olds trying to start up a some sort of business [ Example (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=426746) ], but it was a very interesting question nonetheless.

In short: How much copyright protection would I, or anyone have if someone stole one of my designs or coding.

To protect the source code, images and and text content of your website you can use such tool as HTML Protector (websamba.com/qesign)

copyright protection ;)

I would protect the source code, there are many ways that it can be encripted

Yeah, protect the source code.

I'm sort of looking for the same thing myself.

You can't completely protect your HTML source without compromising browser compatibility. If someone really wanted to steal your layout, they could.

Yes, it would make things harder to steal, but it's still possible.

Edit: Oops, all the replies were kinda offtopic, so I followed them.

Anyways, you wouldn't have too much protection if you didn't have money or time. Starting a legal action against the person who stole your design would be costly and most likely ineffective. Why? People who steal layouts are usually inexperienced youths - who either are nearly impossible to track or hard to prove.

You can always contact their(s) hosting companies and they might be able to assist in getting any copyrighted material removed from their sites...

you can always encrypt?

In short: How much copyright protection would I, or anyone have if someone stole one of my designs or coding.

As far as I'm aware, residents can be both a citizen of Australia, and the US. This meaning you have pretty good protection. But if a middle eastern persons ripped your design, you have little/none.

I don't know for certain, you would have to contact a legal advisor.

To protect the source code, images and and text content of your website you can use such tool as HTML Protector (websamba.com/qesign)

Yeah, protect the source code.

you can always encrypt?

I'm afraid to say, the best way to stop your content being stolen is to not put it on the web in the first place. It doesn't matter how well you encrypt or protect your files, someone will find a way round them if they really want to.

Sure it'll stop the non-savvy amateurs taking it, or will it? Take a screenshot, export it using PS or FW and they've pretty much done it anyway right?

Copyright protection is about the best protection you'll get for design and layout. But that's pretty powerful in court, providng it gets that far, and you can prove you own it. The best way would be to have it registered copyright (Will hold up better in court), over the 'berne convention copyright'.

A well written cease and desist letter usually scares the 'crap' out of people. I suggest by your legal advisor, they know all the niché's etc. :)

I've seen people in some other posts talk about Zend & how it's hard to crack, but is that only for softwares?