Berne Copyright Convention Under a convention of the Law called the Berne Copyright Convention, all creative works are copywritten the moment they're in a tangible form. Tangible form means almost anything other than in your head. Simply dreaming of the world's greatest Web site isn't enough to protect your ideas by Copyright. But once it's in a material form, it's protected. This means that, regardless of whether or not you see a Copyright noticed affixed to a newspaper, Web page, piece of fine artit's most likely Copyright material, if it's original. However, many people have never heard of the Berne Copyright Convention. And many people, for some strange reason, fail to respect that most Web site material is Copyright protected, unless they see an explicit Copyright notice (and even then some people don't care). It's to your advantage to place a formal Copyright notice somewhere on your Web siteor on every page. You may not prevent people from stealing your work, but it may deter some people, it makes some people stop and think about whether they really want to "borrow" your material, and it can help you out in case you decide to press charges against someone for Copyright infringement.