 For Authors: June 12, 2013 Issue [#5719] |
  For Authors
This week: Copyright Basics Edited by: Jeff  
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"Some writers enjoy writing, I am told. Not me. I enjoy having written.
-- George R.R. Martin
Trivia of the Week: Frankenstein is not actually the name of the familiar laboratory monster. Frankenstein was actually the creator of the monster (and Victor Frankenstein was a medical student rather than a doctor). The creature is only ever referred to as "Frankenstein's monster" or "the monster," but never as Frankenstein itself.
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COPYRIGHT BASICS
This week, I'd like to talk a little about copyright. Copyright is an extensive subject matter and just the legal aspects of it alone can take an attorney his or her entire lifetime to understand, so this will be a general overview intended to give a "broad strokes" look at the concept and address some of the major concerns and misconceptions about it. I do need to preface this article with a caveat though; nothing herein should be construed as legal advice. If you're in a position where you have to take a legal course of action with regard to your copyright, you should consult an intellectual property attorney for true legal advice.
What is copyright?
Copyright is a legal protection for authors and their creative works. In the United States, copyright gives an author the exclusive right to:
 reproduce the work
create derivative works
distribute copies of the work to the public
perform and/or display the work publicly
It's illegal for another person to violate any of the rights provided to a copyright holder. Thus, it would be a violation of your copyright (and against the law) for me to - without your permission - print copies of your book and sell them, write a sequel to your story using your characters, turn your short story into a musical and have it performed, etc.
It's important to note, though, that copyright only protects work that's fixed in a tangible medium of expression. In other words, you can protect the execution of an idea, but not the idea itself. An idea on its own (an adolescent boy goes off to a supernatural boarding school where he learns to become a wizard) is not protectable and can be used by anyone, while the execution of that idea (the specific story of how Harry Potter goes off to Hogwarts and learns to become a wizard) is protectable and can be enforced by the author.
Works protected under copyright include literary works, musical works, dramatic works, pantomimes and choreographed works, pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, motion pictures and other audiovisual works, sound recordings, and architectural works. Copyright does not protect titles, names, phrases, slogans, symbols, ideas, procedures, methods, devices, etc.; many famous elements along these lines are protected under U.S. trademark and/or law, but that's a whole other issue. For all intents and purposes here, your copyright does not extend to these things. You also cannot copyright anything that's considered common knowledge.
When can an author claim copyright?
Technically, copyright exists the moment a creative work is set in fixed form. The minute you write it down on paper, type it into your word processor, or dictate it to your voice recorder, you own the copyright to those words. However, most people are advised to register their creative work with an entity like the U.S. Copyright Office, as registration of the copyright is what creates an official record (including a date of creation) of that ownership, and allows authors to enforce their copyright legally against those who violate or infringe upon it. An author may register both published and unpublished works with the U.S. Copyright Office.
How long does copyright last?
For any works created on or after January 1, 1978, an author's claim of copyright lasts for the duration of the author's life, plus 70 years. After the expiration of the copyright, the work enters the public domain and becomes available for use by anyone. In the U.S., any works created prior to 1923 are in the public domain and available for use.
How do I register a work with the Copyright Office?
Information for registering a copyright can be found on the official U.S. Copyright website: http://www.copyright.gov
What is "Poor Man's Copyright" and is it legit?
The so-called "Poor Man's Copyright" is a persistent rumor that you can avoid the cost of registering your work by simply mailing a copy of the work to yourself in a sealed envelope and use the postmark on the envelope as evidence of the date of creation. The Copyright Office makes it clear that this is not a valid method of registration, and no court has made a ruling or published an opinion that recognizes Poor Man's Copyright as a legitimate method of proving ownership of your work. If you want a full and legitimate registration of your copyright, you have to pay the fee and go through the Copyright Office.
How does copyright factor into publishing and websites like Writing.Com?
Since copyright grants you, the author, the sole right to reproduce and distribute the work, you need to grant other people those rights in order to allow them to distribute your book. Those rights are always defined in your agreement (and you should always make sure you understand what you're agreeing to before you sign anything). Your assignment of those rights to others can be as minor as in the case of Writing.Com where you grant them the non-exclusive right to display and utilize your content (see the Writing.Com Terms of Service, Paragraph 3) so that the site can legally house your creative work in your portfolio... all the way to as restrictive as assigning the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute your material (often for a predetermined amount of time) to a publisher that's going to turn it into a book and sell it to consumers.
Special note for screenwriters: unlike other authors where publishers typically license aspects of the copyright from them in order to reproduce or distribute the work, when a motion picture company buys your work, they actually purchase your copyright from you (i.e. they become the new "author" of the work and you no longer have any claim to it). The reason for this is because a screenplay is not the finished form of a movie and - for legal reasons - the entity making the movie has to own all underlying rights (including the screenplay) in order to own the finished movie itself. This is also why screenwriting generally pays better than other forms of writing; a first-time screenwriter can potentially make ten or twenty times what a first-time novelist may make on an advance... but it's because the screenwriter is selling the copyright, not licensing it and retaining some control for themselves.
Are there exceptions to copyright that allow people to use my work?
There is a concept called "fair use" which allows limited use of your copyrighted material in certain situations. For example, commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, parody, etc. In other words, people can use your work (or portions of it) if they're writing a book review, or reporting a story about it, or using it as a teaching aid, or making fun of it on Saturday Night Live. Generally fair use is determined by the noncommercial use of your material and/or the lack of a profit motive (but not always). A good rule of thumb, though, is that if you're profiting off of someone else's copyrighted material without their permission, it's probably not fair use.
What about fanfiction?
Fanfiction is technically a violation of copyright, since using their protected elements (characters, storylines, etc.) is the basis for the fanfiction, which makes the fanfiction a derivative work. However, fanfiction is difficult to prosecute for infringement because there's rarely a profit motive involved and many fanfic authors include a disclaimer acknowledging that the original characters, storylines, and other creative elements are owned by their original creators.
What do I do if someone violates my copyright?
Consult an attorney. Copyright cases are typically argued in civil court, and the copyright owner (as the plaintiff) must often bear the cost of enforcing the copyright, including attorneys' fees, administrative and court costs, etc. For this reason (again, consult an attorney for legal advice if you find your copyright has been violated), infringement lawsuits are rarely brought forward unless there are actual monetary damages being caused and/or the infringing individual(s) have not complied with previous demands to cease and desist their activities.
Copyright is a much more complex issue than the small number of details provided here, but hopefully this gives a good general overview of what copyright entails.
Until next time,
-- Jeff
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I encourage you to check out the following items:
| | | The Magic Box [E] #1937363
Sammy receives a box to take on his Christmas trip. What will he find in his surprise box?
by Amay  |
Excitement filled the dining room, while Daddy finished loading the van. Mommy stood in front of a huge box sitting on the table all wrapped up and she was holding a letter in her hand.
“What’s it say? What’s it say?”
“It isn’t addressed to me. Why don’t you open it and find out.” She handed me the envelope. I was on cloud nine. I never get mail to open. I looked at the envelope; sure enough it was addressed to me! My very own piece of mail! It even had a stamp!
November 8th, 2016 – The Presidential Election
TV screens flashed their bright lights from all across America as the whole country waited to see the results of the presidential election. If the Republican party won, the Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie, would become the next American president. If the Democratic party won, then the governor of California, Antonio Villaraigosa, would become the next American president.
Of course, there was always the off chance that the Party for Socialism and Liberation candidates, Peta Lindsay and Yari Osorio, would win the election. But nobody believed that, and they didn’t want to waste their vote. Plus, Lindsay and Osorio had tried earlier in 2012 and failed, after which they had admitted to going into the election not to win, but to expose a corrupt system. Where thousands had voted before for them, hundreds voted now.
Giant bold black letters fling themselves upon me like a carnivorous predator finally leaping upon its long-stalked prey. PRIEST SUSPENDED OVER AFFAIR WITH PARISHIONER. With an expression contorted with disgust, I fling the paper aside then, sighing, collapse into the nearest chair and bury my face in my palms. How could I have been so foolish?
I was not proud of what I was, but if I didn't do my job someone else would so why shouldn't it be me making the money for it? I have killed for money; I have stolen for money; I have cheated for money. So when I was asked to just bring a person alive to the client I thought it would be easy money. I arrived into the town late in the evening and still haven't eaten so the inn was my first stop. The prices were outrageous for both meat and drink, and they both tasted of the dirt that seemed to cling to everything in this part of the world.
Dispatch to General Ross October 22,1887
Sir,
Two native women spotted at the creek. Another, a male, close by. Sent three soldiers back to ford to find and capture the three, believed to be one of the few remaining renegade bands in hiding. Men found no sign or tracks anywhere along the bank. Searched the area to no avail. Leaving for Fort Klamath as ordered.
Respectfully,
Lieutenant Irvine
“Step right up, folks,” the clown called out. “Welcome to the Wall of Windows. Price is only a dollar. Can you remember everything you see? Give it a try.”
The carnival was a fun, but clowns were creepy, and Shandra had no desire to play his game. It seemed like everywhere she went, she could hear his taunts.
Shandra decided to ride the ferris wheel to see if she could get the ghoulish clown out of her head. The wheel rose and fell with the music, and every time she was near the bottom, she could hear him again.
Finally, she decided to put on a brave face and play the game.
"Miss. Dresure, open your eyes."
The young woman in the bed flinched as consciousness moved back into her.
The process was rushed, however, by the sudden need for breath which had never been heeded by the young girl prior to that moment. The the fact that she did not have the predisposed knowledge of how to take in air hindered her from performing the required motions. As with any other normal body this sent her newly corporal form into a panicked state, hastening the need to wake from the dream.
He froze. Without thinking he waved. Without thinking she waved back, a completely non-threatening hand wiggle on the end of a long and slightly muscular arm, perhaps the first feminine thing she had done since he saw her. Her approach quickened just enough to notice, and he anticipated her approach with a quiet creeping dread for which he could find no justification - he knew he could take her if it came to that.
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Feedback on my last newsletter about saving cats and kicking puppies (character actions):
Quick-Quill  writes, "Oh How you read my mind. I am in trouble. My MC isn't evil he is a troubled, man with fanatical beliefs. You don't really "like" him but I need to make him BAD I don't know how. I'm not a bad person and I abhor wife beaters, but how do I make him unlikable at first then life makes him change everything? His fanatical beliefs change therefore his treatment of others changes.. What to do? How far can I go with his before actions so not to lose the reader?"
Some of the best stories are ones where characters have a complete change of heart as a part of their character arc. If he's a troubled man with fanatical beliefs, the important thing - at least in my opinion - is not so much what he does at the beginning, but what experiences change him and how his perspective shifts due to the events in the story. You can make him unlikable at first by showing him doing the very thing you want the audience to abhor about him... and then show the reader those events that change him so they can understand why he must change. Another useful tool that you see in a lot of stories is a situation which the character handles poorly in the beginning coming back around at the end. That person that they hurt, that thing they did, that moment where they weren't at their best comes back at the end so the character has a chance to right their original wrong. I think as long as your character doesn't appear incapable of change... and as long as he does change and acknowledges his wrongs at some point... your audience will forgive a lot of things that happen in the exposition.
blunderbuss writes, "Your newsletter got me thinking about a new short story (maybe more) I've just got under way. Does this mean that the reader has to be rooting for one character right from the beginning? Or can it change as the characters develop? My two main characters are neither very likeable at the moment. Hope this is not too obtuse!"
Characters can certainly change and develop... most good ones do! The idea isn't necessarily to always explicitly set a course of action that cannot be changed... but merely to give the characters something that establishes their role in the audience's mind. If the characters start to change their perspective or attitude or beliefs, it's just another chance to have them save a new cat or kick a new puppy along the way! 
Michael Thomas-Knight  writes, "This is a fantastic point made about character development! Glad you pointed that out. My characters are going to be saving cats and kicking puppies all over the place  "
That's what I like to hear! More saved cats! More kicked puppies! 
Karl writes, "Well written! This is a basic truth that many people neglect to ever mention. Thanks for bringing light to the darkness (and saving the kitty)."
Thanks for writing in! I appreciate your comments.
BIG BAD WOLF Feeling Thankful  writes, "Of course, sometimes you wonder who is who." (Submitted item: "Brother Mine" )
Indeed.
Kanish ~ we got this! writes, "Hmm, now there is something I can definitely use. Very well highlighted. Hope my villain kicks the puppy and saves the cat in the same story. Now that would be a change for me Thanks again"
Some of the best villains aren't black and white but have a mixture of desirable and undesirable qualities. Saving a cat and kicking a puppy is a great way to create a complex, layered villain. Go for it! 
Mara ♣ McBain  writes, "Loved "Save a cat. Kick a puppy." That is such a simple exercise to remember but can pay huge rewards in your character development!"
Thanks for writing in, Mara. Always a pleasure and an honor to hear that you liked one of my newsletters!
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