IANAL etc. but I do think it's a common misunderstanding / wishful thinking in the US (where I'm from). In the US you can just "be a company" if you want (with

IANAL etc. but I do think it's a common misunderstanding / wishful thinking in the US (where I'm from). In the US you can just "be a company" if you want (with no liability protection), that's between you and the tax man... but if you want to give the operation a name other than your own, you have to register that name (they call it "DBA" for "Doing Business As")[0]. But at least as far back as the early 90's it's been common to put "(c) MyCoolDomainName.com" on a web site, and I'm pretty sure most people mean "copyright ME until/unless I get around to making a business out of this, and if I do then copyright whatever business ends up owning the domain name." And I would assume, though again IANAL, that's not quite what it really means. Unlike, say, Germany, the US has no requirement for anything like an "Impressum" for a web site. Nor could it, really, due to the constitution. (But I Am also Not A Supreme Court Justice so my interpretation of the constitution may be less sticky than others'.) [0]: https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/choose-register-your-business/register-your-business-name https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/choose-register-your-b...