Question about copy rigth
- Thread starter JUANGARZA
- Start date
No it's not true... 
To copyright you need to send it to the government and pay the fee.
go here: www.copyright.gov
while the methods you say may
hold up in a court of law.... a copyright is for sure 
To copyright you need to send it to the government and pay the fee.
go here: www.copyright.gov
while the methods you say may
hold up in a court of law.... a copyright is for sure 
JUANGARZA said:Someone told me if i mailed myself a screenplay i wrote, that would be one way to copy right. And someone else told me to go to a notary public and that could be another way. Is any of this true?
My understanding is a little different than CootDog's...I THINK the way the law works is that you can claim copyright protection on a creative work simply by placing the Copyright notice on it (ie: Copyright 2004 by John Doe). You do not need to submit an official copyright filing in order to claim copyright ownership. The challenge comes if you need to prove in court that your copyright claim pre-dates someone else's claim to ownership of the same work. That is where the mailing idea comes in. If you mail a copy of your script to your self AND KEEP THE ENVELOPE FIRMLY SEALED AFTER RECEIVING IT (do not open it!), you could offer it...and the postmark date on the envelope...as proof that the document inside was created no later than the postmark date. Courts could look favorably on the postmark date since it is issued by a federal government office (USPS). Of course (I'll say it again), this would be void if the envelope appears to have been opened before taking it to court. This does not provide an official copyright, but it gives you a way to potentially prove a creation date. Again...this is my understanding. However, NOTHING is better than officially filing the copyright submission...and since the fee is quite reasonable (around $30 last time I checked), there is no reason not to offically submit it.
Hope this helps...and if anyone has information to the contrary, please let us know.
There are two questions here really.
(
indie has allowed me to use this smilie to mean, I'm not qualified to give legal advice, but ...)
The first is how do you copyright something? The second is how do you protect that copyright?
The first you do by completing a piece of work, putting your name and the copyright symbol on it and a date.
The second you can only do by providing evidence in court that establishes that it is more likely than not the case that you wrote that piece on a particular date.
The industry standard, international way of doing that is as Coot Dog says, Library of Congress submission. Once done there is no argument.
This however is no guarantee that you won't get ripped off. You can only copyright the published work, not the ideas within it.
(
indie has allowed me to use this smilie to mean, I'm not qualified to give legal advice, but ...)The first is how do you copyright something? The second is how do you protect that copyright?
The first you do by completing a piece of work, putting your name and the copyright symbol on it and a date.
The second you can only do by providing evidence in court that establishes that it is more likely than not the case that you wrote that piece on a particular date.
The industry standard, international way of doing that is as Coot Dog says, Library of Congress submission. Once done there is no argument.
This however is no guarantee that you won't get ripped off. You can only copyright the published work, not the ideas within it.
Yes, copyright your published works.
And as a sidenote. You can be sued for anything. The process of dragging someone into a court of law is not very hard. The question is "will you win."
alot of times the judge will just roll his eyes and tell you to get out of his face.
But the truth is if you mail it to yourself and never open the envelope it could hold in a court of law.
A Notery Republic doesnt read your document.. alll she does is stamp it that it was in front of her and she stamps a date on it.
she might read a little bit and make notations (Or he) and have you place a thumb print next to her copy.
Why dont you do both. Copyright it and then noterize it and maybe mail it and never open it up.
It's pretty solid then.
And as a sidenote. You can be sued for anything. The process of dragging someone into a court of law is not very hard. The question is "will you win."
alot of times the judge will just roll his eyes and tell you to get out of his face.
But the truth is if you mail it to yourself and never open the envelope it could hold in a court of law.
A Notery Republic doesnt read your document.. alll she does is stamp it that it was in front of her and she stamps a date on it.
she might read a little bit and make notations (Or he) and have you place a thumb print next to her copy.
Why dont you do both. Copyright it and then noterize it and maybe mail it and never open it up.
It's pretty solid then.
do it right
I have a friend that made a music CD. He made all the music, sound bites, fx, etc... He did it all himself. He put copyright on the CD and CD case... Then he mailed himself one priority mail and never opened it. It was stored in a fireproof safe... WELL! someone sued him. He took that unopened mailed CD to court as his copyright proof and lost because it wasn't the library of congress. It was not recognized by the courts as a copyrighted(is that right or should it be copywritten?) CD.
BUT Photographers just sign their prints(i.e. "Olan Mills") and that's a copyright recognized in court.
If you want to make sure it's done right, do it right.
I have a friend that made a music CD. He made all the music, sound bites, fx, etc... He did it all himself. He put copyright on the CD and CD case... Then he mailed himself one priority mail and never opened it. It was stored in a fireproof safe... WELL! someone sued him. He took that unopened mailed CD to court as his copyright proof and lost because it wasn't the library of congress. It was not recognized by the courts as a copyrighted(is that right or should it be copywritten?) CD.
BUT Photographers just sign their prints(i.e. "Olan Mills") and that's a copyright recognized in court.
If you want to make sure it's done right, do it right.
30 bucks? damn, thats a large pizza and some buffalo wings.
*curses*
*curses*
CootDog said:
I know.. im just tight with the monies
kids and all.
But after reading what everyone has wrote, I clearly would secure my mental properties from being exploited.
Which means I am going to rename my script thanks to telling everyone what its going to be.
What I want to know is a title name Copywritable, because I always see movies with the same titles that are clearly not the same stories.
Something like a title Dead Calm or Heat. where is the line drawn when it comes to names?
I don't think it's possible to copyright a title. I had a short called "Cats and Dogs" that I made a year before the feature film of the same name.
Ironically my short and the trailer for the feature were released on the same CD by Total Film magazine, which must have caused some confusion.
However, I think it is possible to take the title and it's design and turn it into a registered trade mark. The purpose of that is prevent people making unlicensed merchandise.
(Oh I here insert the universally excepted smilie for I'm not qualified to give advice on legal matters, but...)
Ironically my short and the trailer for the feature were released on the same CD by Total Film magazine, which must have caused some confusion.
However, I think it is possible to take the title and it's design and turn it into a registered trade mark. The purpose of that is prevent people making unlicensed merchandise.
(Oh
I here insert the universally excepted smilie for I'm not qualified to give advice on legal matters, but...)