Understanding Copyright

Copyright is the ownership of the rights to reproduce a work you have created. Copyright can be bought and sold. It can be inherited. Copyright has a shelf life! In most countries I know of and all those who are signators to the Berne Convention copyright ownership ends a number of years after the death of the creator! (Often 50 - 75 years)

Speak your creation onto a tape, perform it on video, carve it into wood, Build it with clay, type it onto paper or a disc, in other words record your work in a tangible way, any tangible form! Once you have created it you now own the copyright to that work! Wellah! Magic! Done! Nothing hard about that! No secrets, no library
involvement, no "Please, Sir can I?". This is true in all countries who are signators to the Berne Convention.

OK so why is there a whole bunch of articles on the Internet and in books telling us to submit out works to places like the Library of Congress, or the Writers Guilds? Simple, getting copyright is easy. Proving it is yours is the hard part.

Many of us are closet workers. we sit in our offices (home or business) typing away, drawing, painting, our creations. Creative pursuits are often solitary pursuits. There is no evidence that we created something, nor is there any evidence of when we created it.

Supposing a person decides they like the story you emailed to them and want to have it as their own, literally. They could recreate the story in a word file on their computer, change a couple character names and then send it off to a publisher and claim a zillion dollars in royalty. A week later your manuscript lands on that same
publisher's desk and they read it and say "Hey we just published this story. What are you trying to do?" Next thing in the mail you receive a letter saying, "This story is brilliant we know because we just published it! We also sent the royalties to the 'real' writer.

At this point in time your blood boils! You do a little dance, play darts with a picture of the thief and try to resist the urge to throttle them.

After making some enquiries and finding out the person who submitted the story is the same person you sent your story to in friendship you wonder what can you do about it?

If your manuscript has been lodged with an organisation such as the Writers Guild in your country or the Library of Congress you can prove that you wrote the story before a particular date.

This however is not enough as the other person could claim they created the story five years before that and court battles are expensive and time consuming. The average writer could write a few novels in the time it takes to pursue any matter through the courts. You will have an advantage but you wont necessarily win a case if that is your only evidence.

Here are some common sense tips to keeping the copyright of your work safe.

Keep a log of all your work: Include in the log the date started, the date the first draft and each subsequent draft is finished. Record the details of who edited it, Anyone you showed it or submitted it to and the date you showed it to them. Also the date you sent it to the Writers Guild or the Library of Congress etc.

Keep each draft! Yes every draft of your story. You can keep them on a floppy disc date each one. I would print the first draft and final drafts and keep that too. Buy some big envelopes and pop them in that. You may never need this but in the event of a court battle the court can then view the development of the story for themselves. If you have submitted it to an editor, keep all correspondence about
it. Don't delete that email, save it instead.

It needs to be said that the old story of gaining 'poor man's copyright' by mailing an envelope of your manuscript to yourself will not stand up in a court! Opening envelopes and replacing the contents is too easy.

I hope this has helped give you a clearer view of copyright.

Here are some sites which you can investigate to learn more about
copyright.

Copyright law
check out the law about your creative expressions and who owns them
and how to keep your rights!
http://www.laderapress.com/laderapress/copyrightla w1.html

Electronic Rights
Read up on your rights and what you should seek in your
contracts....... does first rights mean electronic rights?
http://www.sfwa.org/Beware/electronic.html

More Info on Copyright
be informed!
http://www.nesl.edu/research/intprop.cfm

More on copyright law
get yourself informed!
http://profs.lp.findlaw.com/copyright/copyright_7. html

RIAA
Ignorance of the law is not an acceptable excuse...! Find out about
your copyright!
http://www.riaa.org/Copyright-What.cfm

Read up on YOUR COPYRIGHT
being informed is the first step to protecting YOUR RIGHTS
http://www.batnet.com/oikoumene/MMLAW_02.PDF

The Berne Convention: long version
here is what these united countries say about your rights! and what
kind of work is covered by copyright and what countries are members
of the Berne Convention
http://www.cerebalaw.com/berne.htm

The Berne Convention: short version
A quick overall picture of the Berne Convention
http://www.indexstock.com/pages/berne.htm