-Nick-

Many individuals and businesses have a web site but few
understand their rights to the ownership of that site, or their
responsibility to maintain that ownership. I bring this up
because of a call I received last week from an individual whose
website was "stolen". They went on the Internet the other day to
look at their website and something completely different
appeared. Someone else was using their name and promoting a
completely different product than the original owners had. In
this example, no crime was committed. I will explain.



When you create a website, there are three costs involved. The
first is the purchase of your domain name or URL as it is
sometimes referred. This is the unique address you type into the
browser to find your site such as www.yourname.com or
www.buymystuff.net. These can be purchased from hundreds of
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sites on the Internet and are not that expensive. You can
purchase these for a minimum of one year and for multiple years
if desired. Once purchased, your domain need to be "pointed to"
the physical computer that your website will reside on.



The second cost involved is the purchase of the hosting package.
This is the money you pay to rent a space on one of the
thousands of web servers located all over the world. There are
free hosting packages available but they have their
disadvantages and I won't go into that here. Most people host
their site on an ISP (Internet Service Provider) that is in
their geographical area although there is no reason not to host
on a server half way around the world, if it is a good,
inexpensive, and reliable hosting server.



The third cost is to have your website created and maintained by
a website designer of your choosing. Many people like to do this
part themselves and there are many programs and books out there
to help you create your own website. Many times the customer
will have a website designer take care of all three steps for
them and just pay one fee. The web designer sends your website
from his computer where he/she created it up to the server and
can take care of all the details regarding #1 and #2 above.



Here is where you need to be a good consumer and know a little
more about the process.

You are the owner of your domain name and the owner of your
website. Although most people grant their website designer or
website administrator the power to control all of this, and
although most people do not understand the technicalities of
domains and hosting packages, you should still have all the
details readily available.



If you have a business website and delegated any of the work
involved in setting it up to another person, you should still
maintain complete control over its future.

Whether you or someone else purchases the domain name for your
website (the www.yourname.com), make certain that you have the
contact details from the company it was purchased from, and the
corresponding username and password to access control over the
domain's use. Most importantly, make sure you are listed as the
registered owner of the website, not the person or company that
is creating your website for you. All registered domains have
four contact individuals listed on the Internet. Your web
administrator can be listed as the technical contact or the
administrative contact but you need to be listed as the
registered owner. This way, if any changes are made to the
status of the domain, you are informed as well, and you should
be notified when the domain name is about to expire.
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This is how my friends' website was "stolen". He was not listed
as the owner, and the design company that was listed as the
owner went out of business. When the domain name expired
(remember, you purchase these for a limited time and then have
to renew), the owner did not know it and that particular domain
name became available for anyone else to purchase - legally.
Thus, my friends website was not really stolen. He was the
victim of ignorance.


If You liked this article then some rep will be appreciated.

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