Thread: Copyright

I'm seriously considering this before I head down the publishing route. I worry that exhibiting my work may lead to creative theft and all manners of knavery. What sort of method should I perform to legally copyright my work officially? And does it matter to editors and publishers that it's copyrighted?

I've read easy ways, such as posting my work to myself; but I'm looking for a more official and cheap way to get it done that legally binds my material to me. I'm not just talking about an entire novel either (that included), but story and names too, for example (if that's possible). It'd really break my heart if, somewhere down the line, someone got inspired by my work too early in the game and used it successfully before I could.

Thanks

It's really not a serious consideration. Your work is self-copyrighted the moment you write it-in the electronic world especially, the time and date are appended to it. There have been many discussions on these boards about that issue. They all tend to say fuhgeddaboutit.

I never knew that Word has proof of such things. I've always considered copyrighting my work as an enivitable period of the writing experience. So, really, you think I should forget the idea and just attack the editors and publishers head on without worrying about it?

I think that to "attack the editors and publishers head on" would be exactly the wrong way to go about things. What you do is write/copyedit your manuscript until it's viable in your eyes, then get someone impartial to go over it, point out the stuff you missed, do it over again, then submit said finished ms. to agents. Let them get the work to publishers. It isn't a battle. It's a process. If your property is decent, you have a chance.
An agent will have an idea of what markets to submit your work to.
Copyrights are a fledgling hobbyhorse.

It's a common misconception among new writers. The chances of someone stealing your work, putting their name to it, and getting it published and becoming a millionaire is the same as the chances of winning the lottery.

Yes, I would forget about it.

Word keeps meticulous records of its own existance, so that it knows when you have been using the cheap Home & Student Edition for professional output! If you right-click on a file name you will get this:



Which gives you all sorts of information including all the relevant dates you need to prove when you wrote it. If you wish to be safe from the Home & Student dilema you can copy and paste chapter by chapter from Word into OpenOffice, AbiWord or similar.

Most newbies suffer from Golden Word Syndrome and fret about theft. Once they've been around the literary block a few times they realize how silly that is. It's very difficult selling writing, especially fiction. Nobody in their right mind is going to steal someone's work and then spend a couple of years pretending it's theirs while trying to sell it all over hell's half-acre.

Publishers don't appreciated receiving copyrighted work. There are ALWAYS changes, usually substantial ones, between the submitted work and the finished product. The time for copyrighting is when the final galleys have been returned to the publisher. That's when the work is engraved in stone (so to speak) and when copyrighting makes sense. (Plus, the publisher pays for it and does all the paperwork.)

As moderan noted, your focus should be on producing a salable work, not worrying about word thieves.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by eraser

Publishers don't appreciated receiving copyrighted work. There are ALWAYS changes, usually substantial ones, between the submitted work and the finished product. The time for copyrighting is when the final galleys have been returned to the publisher. That's when the work is engraved in stone (so to speak) and when copyrighting makes sense. (Plus, the publisher pays for it and does all the paperwork.)

Good luck.

Copyright is free in the UK and most countries that recognise the principal (Not China). You can't copyright names or book/film/play titles. If you invent something and use it for the book title you can both copyright and trade-mark it - If for instance you wrote a book about a sport played up against the Berlin Wall and called the sport WallBall^{® TM} and registered it seperately as a trade mark....

Copyright is for the representation of an idea and exists the minute you create the work. There is nothing official you can do to copyright work. All you need do is back up your work periodically. Then if you need to in the future you can prove you created the work. I don't think you can copyright names though.

Hi everyone. I'm pretty new to this and have never had anything published before, or even submitted anything. So I was wondering. How does posting on this forum affect copyright issues and the chances of getting it published? Also, does this apply only to parts of the actual story, or even to information about it--details, universe, plotline, characters, etc.?

I was in the Workshop section and it looked like there was one thread that was protected but what about the ideas I post in the rest of the forum?

Not sure how it is in UK, but in the US, anything you write in tangible form (print, disc, hard drive, on tape) is automatically yours once it's in that form. As far as ideas, those aren't copyrighted. The workshop thread is for members only, so it's not visible to anyone just surfing, & to anyone using search engines with terms that match any in your story. Really anything you post is posted with your moniker which is backed up by your profile & personal email address if there's ever a dispute, but if it really concerns you, just use the writer's workshop. But remember, ideas for a story cannot be copyrighted.

OK, thanks. I'm in the US, and I've heard that before, but since I'm planning to use a pen name, I wondered if there was more to it than that. I've heard, too, that posting significant amounts of a story online will make traditional publishing harder because it will be regarded as "self-published" already. Not sure of the accuracy of this, but as I'm only planning to post small portions, anyway, I doubt it will be an issue.

Good point about the pen name, but more research would answer that question. As far as the posted portions of your story, I can understand how someone would consider it published if there are large blocks of it posted. Brings to mind short stories in magazines. But how can they really have a problem with simply posting portions of it to an internet forum about writing? If you make a deal with a publisher for the entire story, after that it belongs to them. They shouldn't have a problem with you posting to a forum about writing before the deal.

Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is createdin fixed form. The copyright in the work of authorshipimmediately becomes the property of the author who createdthe work. Only the author or those deriving their rights

through the author can rightfully claim copyright.

No publication or registration or other action

in the Copyright Office is required to secure copyright.

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf

Just to make it official.

There is no perfect words guaranteed to make millions, so outside of school work(stealing work for a grade) few would consider stealing someones work. Its like stepping into a spotlight and stealing a lottery ticket. Highly visible crime with the great possibility of no gain.

I'm far more worried about being able to write something that might be worth stealing than the possibility of it ever being stolen.

I mean, you have to write the stupid novel to begin with, in order for it to be hijacked.