Way to copyright a prototype site?

[evdoxos]

Could google develop its own site (like youtube) instead of buying youtube, or youtube had the copyright?
If someone has an idea of developing a prototype site what is the way to copyright it?
Is it enough to build the site or should do more things?

 

[IAmAllanShore]

Google did have its own site before they purchased youtube, "Google Video" ( :gn: ), but what youtube had that isn't able to be copyrighted is millions upon millions of visitors.
-Allan :gl:

 

[Domagon]

Exactly. It was more practical for Google to buy YouTube than try to take it on ... and yes, they tried with Google Video, but it just didn't get traction with the masses like YouTube did.

Plus, buying YouTube eliminated potential competition later from them, or whoever else was thinking of acquiring it...

And substantially raises the barrier of entry to others considering starting a similar service. YouTube's technology is easy to duplicate (there's zillions of clones out there), but not YouTube's mass appeal.

Getting back to your initial question, one potentially effective way to protect a truly innovative publicly viewable website is utilizing patent law for its presentation, functionality, etc.

To digress a bit, if one has a unique idea that has not been publicly released, but only pitched privately to others, the person could potentially protect their idea utilizing contracts, such as a non-disclosure agreement.

Ron

 

[Zeeble]

There is no such thing as copyright protection of an idea.

As far as my understanding goes, you can only patent a process, not an idea. So even though YouTube may have been the first to create an online video site, there are still many other ways of achieving the same thing through different technologies.

 

[Total]

However, you can have some (...) level of protection for the creatives (mostly images). There are many agencies you can check it with.