|
| AUTHOR |
MESSAGE |
|
User no longer registered.
|
How to copyright - Protect Your Work
With people posting things they do on all of the available social networking sites these days, its easy to have an original work stolen so that someone else can benefit from it. So I decided to share some information to hopefully help protect anyone who creates. I know the rules about posting URLs, and if it gets edited, I understand, but I'm not trying to promote anything. If it does get edited, try doing a search on how to copyright and hopefully you'll find the right site to be able to use the instructions below. This is cut and pasted from an email that I sent to a friend of mine and it pertains mostly to songs, but the same information applies to Novels, Plays etc.
"For copyrighting, its pretty easy. Go to copyright.gov and go to the ECO (Electronic Copyright Office). There's a Power Point Tutorial that walks you right through what you need to do. You create a profile, submit payment method and once your payment is accepted, you upload what you want. Its $35 per submission, not per song. If you submit 1 song or 50, its $35 and you're done. It says that it takes a few months to actually get a copyright certificate in the mail, but you get assigned a case number right away as well as email confirmation of Creation of Account, Payment Receipt and Acknowledgment of the electronic uploads, so you're pretty well covered, even before you get your Copyright Certificate. The was no need to submit lyrics or sheet music. Technically, your work is copyrighted once you document it on paper or when you record it. But for $35, your work is fully protected.
I really thought this was going to be a long, paper laden and expensive thing to do, but doing it this way was inexpensive and pretty easy too."
So there ya go. Hope that helps out anyone who may have been interested in doing this.
|
| November 12, 2010, 13:17 |
|
User no longer registered.
|
Re: How to copyright - Protect Your Work
Most cases of copyright infringement go to when trhe patent was filed. Not when it was approved. 
|
| November 12, 2010, 14:38 |
|
User no longer registered.
|
Re: How to copyright - Protect Your Work
Yep, exactly.
|
| November 12, 2010, 14:40 |
|
Mooant
41 / male
New Britain, Connecticut, US
|
Re: How to copyright - Protect Your Work
Any creative works (writing, drawing, sculpting, music), are inherently copyrighted during the creation process. There is no need to copyright an idea, so long as you can prove that the work was done by you before the person that stole and profited off your work.
My mom used to write and tried to get published. I've been toying with the same idea for a while and I love to write myself. The only thing you can do to protect yourself from creative works being stolen is to not post them on the internet to begin with. Although, in doing so, you create a solid date stamp of when you finished the creative work.
|
| November 12, 2010, 16:54 |
|
newbie1011
62 / female
The Shore, New Jersey, US
|
Re: How to copyright - Protect Your Work
There is another thing that most people I know That write do..whatever you write or whatever your idea you put it on paper in detail. Mail it to yourself in a well sealed envelope and never open it. It will be stamped and dated by the post office.put it away someplace safe. If you ever have to prove you had that idea, song, story, whatever at a certain date its in that envelope. Some people recommend doing this with proof of mailing or certified mail as added Proof. At least this covers you if u can't afford the expense of copyrighting everything and even if you plan to but want to wait till you have 50 songs you have the time and contents documented. Just remember to NEVER open it.You might want a judge to be the one to do it at some point.
|
| November 12, 2010, 18:24 |
|
User no longer registered.
|
Re: How to copyright - Protect Your Work
Yep, I did that a long time ago too. But then someone told me that isnt foolproof. However, that envelope is in my credenza, unopened. The stuff I copyrighted was new stuff I had written since then. But knowing what I know now, Im going to spend another $35 and copyright all the rest of the old ones.
|
| November 12, 2010, 19:20 |
|
|
