[teachingaway]

If you put a lot of effort into a project and don't want it stolen, please REGISTER THE COPYRIGHT.

0. Register the copyright within 3 months after you publish the project.

1. Register online at https://eco.copyright.gov/ - it costs $35 (or so) and is not particularly difficult to do.

1.1 registration is not difficult, but it is tedious and involves navigating a super-old government website that kinda sucks.

2. You can also hire a lawyer to register for you, which costs around $200-300.

3. Once you have the copyright registration, you can write a polite letter to whomever is stealing your stuff (or write a nasty letter, depending on your mood).

4. You can force them to pay you compensation for stealing your copyrighted content.

5. If your stolen stuff is being hosted by a third party provider (like imgur or whatever), you can send the host a DMCA takedown request, and the host will quickly remove the offending content.

that is just US law. Milage may vary in other countries.

edit - a lot of downvoting on this comment. Too snarky? Too anti-open-source? i thought this is useful info. Sorry to offend!

[wise_young_man]

You don't actually need to register in order to be protected by copyright laws. The benefit to registering is that it is needed in order to sue. [1]

1: http://thompsonhall.com/does-a-copyright-have-to-be-register...

[teachingaway]

I used to litigate copyright cases. While your comment is technically true, for 98% of cases, you will need the copyright registration for any amount of meaningful copyright protection.

[orik]

35$ a visualization seems a steep price to pay.