Your work was protected the moment it was created. Acquiring an 'official' copyright strenthens your claim should your copyright be infringed.

The short answer is "yes."

For the long answer, see copyright.gov (or the appropriate website for your country's copyright laws if you're not in the U.S.)

I've seen a few posts regarding people registering entire websites for offical copyrights and it makes me wonder how many people are actually doing this.
I would think that most sites are so organic or at least updated frequently enough that it would make an official copyright irrelevant.
I can see registering copyrights for specific content that would not change within a website like an article, an audio file or a graphic, but an entire website seems a bit impractical to me.
Maybe I'm not understanding what is meant by "copyrighting a website".

Maybe I'm not understanding what is meant by "copyrighting a website" either. If the content changes often then what is actually copyrighted other than the static content, pictures, etc.?

In the US (I can't speak for other counties), the above poster is correct that you have copyright the instant you create something, although he is also correct that you will have a "bigger stick" if you actually do register.

Generally I think websites are not worth the time and effort of registering for a copyright.

Thanks. I believe that I understand the basics of this now. One more question. Could a simple line as "all rights reserved" (see bottom of this page) be somewhat of an equivalent to a copyright?

Could a simple line as "all rights reserved" (see bottom of this page) be somewhat of an equivalent to a copyright?

Yes, since you already own the copyright to what you have just created (your website) you can simply post the notification that your content is protected. You might want to add 'international' in there as well since most countries recognize US copyrights in some form or another.

(c)2007 All International Rights Reserved