Copyright, laws etc

If i want to sell software i made on the internet, do i need to register it anywhere?
Say to get copyright on it and things? Or do i have those already?

I don't think you need a lawyer for that. According to all the READMEs i've read looks like you only need to pop in your license or reference it through the README and copyright bless is over you.

http://www.lawforinternet.com/

I found that while surfing on CNET earlier this summer. It's amazing I remembered that long address!

Cheers,
Joe of 4Life

Is lawforinternet.com still a working site? Every link on that site generates a MySQL error for me.

LOL The background and CSS still work though!

You don't need anything special to COPYRIGHT something. All you have to do is own it and say you reserve the copyright on it. You can also write up your own license, or, use an existing one, and attach that to it. However, if you write your own, you'll probably want to have a lawyer look it over to make sure a court will back up the wording if/when you need to invoke it.

If you want to patent an idea or if you want to trademark something, that's an entirely different story:

http://www.uspto.gov/

Yes, about $1000 in difference! I'm probably going to try and trademark my online store's name and logo early next year. Takes about a year and a half to get "approved" from USPTO.

www.marksonline.com has free background info about the process in case anyone's interested.

Another way to patent/copyright something is to send the program files by recorded delivery to your lawyer, then don't open it. This way it was legally recieved on the day it was signed for, and untampered with, so if any court case arises, you open the box and show that you had the idea first! Added to this, it will be recognised in court that you created the program on the day it was recieved by your lawyer.