Do I need to register my blog as a company?
I have been running a blog for a little over two years now, but I'm still not 100% sure if everything is set up "right." The blog is a non profit video game blog which focuses on video game news and reviews. Due to modern copyright law, anything published on the blog (that is original work) is protected and registered as that blog's work. However; do I still need to register it as a "company?"
In order to protect the name, I know that a Trademark is in fact required (that is currently being worked out), but is that all that is needed? While I am the owner of the blog, we do have a few other writers, and everyone uses the blog's name as our identity. This is why I was wondering if it needed to be registered. Do blogs on their own count as a group, and can we continue to carry ourselves as such? Or will we have to become an actual company to continue to use our name/blog as a group?
Update:Although we plan on staying non profit, we are starting to gain popularity. In a few months we have had over 50,000 visitors, our reviews (which are also published in other locations) receive hundreds of thousands of hits, and we have been contacted by indie game developers, as well as others involved in the video game industry. We are not a small time blog, but we aren't a massive one either.
Comments
You don't need to incorporate or form an LLC, but you should make sure that all original work by your contributors is protected by properly crediting each blog post to the original author to satisfy copyright requirements.
As for the relationship between the various collaborators on the blog, if there's more than one person involved in administering and managing you might want to consider entering into a partnership agreement to clarify in writing what the various partners' rights and obligations are to each other and to the group. If you're not sure how to draw one up, you can find template agreements here: http://www.megadox.com/c/319
A partnership agreement will be crucial if you do decide to start monetizing your site. It can also help resolve disputes over content ownership and other contentious issues. A partnership is not a corporation or company and there are no tax issues to consider so long as there is no income being generated by the blog.
You wrote, "Due to modern copyright law, anything published on the blog (that is original work) is protected and registered as that blog's work.".
Uhm, no, it's not. The author owns the copyright, which is almost NEVER registered unless you're filing a federal lawsuit in the USA. In other words, the contributors to the blog, "the authors," continue to be the owners of the respective copyrights of their contributions, unless you have them sign a written form that proves they intentionally transferred ownership of their copyright. 17 USC 201. What the blog publisher gets is a limited, non-exclusive license from each contributor to reproduce, modify, perform, display and distribute their works, possibly in perpetuity or until the poster indicates a desire to withdraw something.
Your blog's name is already an automatic trademark (actually a "service" mark) once you have provided the online services using that name as a brand. Like copyright, registration is not required (although it can be valuable), but unlike copyright, your unregistered service mark rights can be enforced in state or federal courts (Lanham Act), making registration COMPLETELY optional. Similar for Canada and UK: you get proprietary rights to prevent other Johnny-come-latelys from using a "confusingly similar brand" in related fields after your distinctive brand is already out there.
If you're doing it as a hobby and not accepting money or selling anything, you might not need to register "as a company", unless your local zoning bureaucrats get wind of you "publishing venture" being operated out of your house... You can register your service mark in one or more states, in the federal USPTO, and in foreign countries, if you want.
As a "group" (i.e., an unincorporated association, but not a de facto partnership), you would be jointly and severally liable for any lawsuits brought against your blog, such as copyright or trademark infringement. If you were an LLC or incorporated, you and the other investors would only be risking as much as they put into it, rather than their entire personal fortunes (and insurance).
To avoid copyright claims for stupid things posted illegally by members, you need to follow the "safe-harbor" provisions of the DMCA, including having a registered agent for receipt of copyright complaints, and a process to "promptly disable" offending posts. 17 USC 512. Otherwise you could be sued for contributory infringement, even if nobody is making (or losing) money on the infringement. 17 USC 504, up to $150,000 per violation.
No, no need to register as a business unless you want to start making money. If you're worried about trademarks and copyrights and you're not making money, you're probably wasting your time. If there are any associate expenses, you might want to divide those up.. but formalizing it as a company is going to create way more administrative overhead than it is worth to keep a blog updated.
What's your level of commitment and what is your level of commitment to keeping it non-profit?