Write Away Magazine - April

HOW TO COPYRIGHT
MY CREATIVE WORKS
Protection of creative works is referred to as a
copyright. A copyright is a protection of
authorship covering both published and
unpublished works that has been created and fixed
to a tangible medium of expression.
A tangible medium of expression can be literary,
dramatic, musical, and artistic works such as poetry,
novels, movies, songs, software, or architecture,
but does not protect facts, IDEAS, systems,
methods of operations, or TITLES, although it may
protect the way these things are expressed.
In the United States, and the UK, your work is considered
copyright protected the moment it is created
and fixed in a tangible form to be perceived
directly or with the aid of a machine or device.
Tangible perception is when a work of art has
proof of ownership with documentation concerning
when the work of art was created.
Tangible documentation needs a time stamp for
proof of when the copyright started. This must be
in a form that cannot be altered, or grouped with
other time stamps as additional proof of time of
authenticity. The practice of sending registered
mail to yourself is no longer admissible as proof of
authenticity due to its contents not documented,
and the easy ability to alter the contents of a
sealed envelope. So how then can we time stamp
it? Email is one form, saving both sent and
received copies of your work, including the files
attached to the email as well as being written out in
the contents of the email. Publishing the work on
any website is also timestamped. Date of release
to any form of media. It is advised to take photos of
any time stamps for additional proof of authenticity,
being sure to capture the time stamp in the
photo. Registering with the copyright office is the
ultimate proof and has the best protection for your
work of art. A registered copyright is considered
authentic from the time of creation as long as the
filing is within five years of when it was created,
otherwise its authenticity starts from the point in
time the registration was completed.
Other forms of proof would be a bar code attachment,
a recorded CD or other hard type recording
media such as a vinyl record, DVD, or duplications.
Keep all duplication receipts as additional proof.
You can not get enough proof of authenticity. The
more you have, the less likely you will run into a
problem of someone infringing on your copyright.
Why should we register a copyright, if copyright
laws grant authenticity at the moment of creation?
If the work is brought to litigation for a determination
of two or more parties claiming to own the
work of art, a registered copyright can obtain
lawyer fees and statutory damages if the owner
wins the lawsuit, whereas a non-registered copyright
cannot. A non-registered copyright can grant
a cease and desist order, meaning the court can
order someone who is using your copyright to stop
at once from using it, and also order any further
use of said works to pay dividend of profits to the
original owner.
If you have no proof you own it, you don’t own it.
This is how the court will perceive the copyright if
it comes to litigation, and you have no proof of
authenticity. Always keep all forms of proof, saved
with backup copies.
Is there an exception to any of this? Yes! Not all
countries adhere to international copyright laws,
meaning they do not punish someone inside their
country for stealing your creations. How can I protect
against this? You can search the copyright
office and determine what country you may not
wish to have your creation released into. It is unfortunate
there are still countries that do not protect
against this kind of theft, and again, the best way
to protect your work is to register with the copyright
office.
Information for this article was obtained from
research on information mostly provided directly
from the library of congress, and is authorized to
use in an educational form.
Written by Daryn Wright
www.darynwright.com
https://www.reverbnation.com/darynwright
www.writeawaymagazine.co.uk
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