From a UK point of view, you own the copyright on anything that you write/create just by putting: © Copyright, 'date you wrote it' 'Your name' That forms the basis of the copyright page on any book. Go pick a few off your shelf now and have a look at how their Copyright pages look. The postal system does work in the UK if you send yourself the package by registered post and DO NOT open the package when it arrives back to you, but only in cases where you are trying to prove that you wrote the packages contents before anyone else. Basically, if you wrote a story in 2014 and sent yourself a copy, then in 2016 the same story popped up in your local paper and you wanted to prove you wrote it first, you have a registered parcel containing your story dated 2014. That being said, for electronic copies and files, there will be somewhere in the file's properties section that clearly shows the creation date of the document and the 'last edited' date. From what I know, (sometimes very little) a plagiarizer WILL get found out eventually. The main aim if you fall victim, is to prove that, 1) they've nicked your story and 2) you came up with the story first. I'll try and look up a case I was recently reading up on which concerned an author who wrote male/female romance stories. She'd written a number of them over the years and then along comes a girl who releases something like 7 novels in a year and cashes in nicely, writing male/male romance. Turns out, she was simply re-writing the m/f books for the m/m market, thinking anyone reading straight romance would never read gay romance. She was wrong.
You don't even have to do that much. The UK is a signatory to the Berne Convention, which prohibits that kind of notice being a requirement to establish copyright. You write it, you have copyright whether you affix the notice or not.
But if you are publishing, (self or trad) you can simply add the line to your copyright page - which is needed for other things too. Here's the link I talked about earlier. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/28/prolific-romantic-fiction-writer-exposed-as-a-plagiarist
In the U.S., it doesn't really matter whether you ever add that line or not. I don't think it has any legal effect in the UK, either, though it might make someone think twice about copying your work, which is nice. In the U.S., registration is required to bring suit and timely registration is required to get statutory damages and attorney's fees.
Does the poor man's copyright really work in the UK? It's so fallible... you can mail yourself an empty envelope and simply put a manuscript in and seal it up at a later date.
I'm guessing the UK works the same way as Ireland and here if you're sending registered mail you have to state in general terms what the package/envelope contains. So sending and empty envelope and trying to convince the postman there is a book in it won't work - unless you slip him a fiver to keep shtum Plus I don't think you can post anything that isn't sealed. In any event this would be very premeditated you're basically saying "I'm going to send myself an envelope so I am prepared if I see something I want to steal later on" - seems unlikely
True. But you could send another chunk of paper and then open and reseal it later. I mean, all these objections are the reason that poor man's copyright holds no weight in the US, so I figured it'd be the same here? But I don't know; just thinking out loud!
I think this method was the way to go before the dawn of the computer but these days all files have a date/time stamp that includes the creation date plus I believe that placing the copyright line on the front page is typically sufficient. As stated earlier you have copyright as soon as you create something and placing the copyright info is more of a deterrent to potential plagiarists
Mailing is easy to fake. So is a date of creation for your computer file. Uploading to an internet server would be harder to fake.
How about emailing the file? I would imagine that would be difficult to fake. Would that be considered uploading to an Internet server? IDK much about technology lol.
Yes, it goes through an internet server. Would be hard to fake on the server end of things, its just a question of whether you could get the data if you needed it (same with uploading to internet server). If a work is important to you, probably best to just register it when you're done.
Not really ... you can't send yourself an open envelope. The envelope containing the MS (or whatever you are copyrighting) has to be the one stamped by the Post Office as it travels through the sorting system. That's what proves the creation dates. If you have an envelope dated June 2015, then it's obvious that its contents was created prior to that date.
If there was no legal effect or requirement, then why is it on the copyright page of every book I've got on my shelf?
Everyone uses it to provide notice. It isn't required. It used to be required, but not for quite some time now. I decided to go ahead and do a Google search. If you go to the following link: https://www.gov.uk/copyright/overview you will see the following information: "You can mark your work with the copyright symbol (©), your name and the year of creation. Whether you mark the work or not doesn’t affect the level of protection you have." (emphasis added)
Then there's no reason not to include it. There are other things which are on the copyright page (particularly if you self publish or if you are including things by other people) so why not put the copyright notice on there too?
I never said not to include it. I said it has no legal effect. Which it doesn't. I did say, above, it might have a deterrent effect on people thinking about copying (though I wonder how much).
Unfortunately not - all it proves is you sent something in an envelope on that date. I can't link on my phone but I just looked it up and poor man's copyright is as worthless here as in the US.
Yes, and if it goes to court, you take the envelope with you and let the court open it. Odd are, you are never going to get that far anyway but if it gives you peace of mind, then what's the problem? Incidentally, this is the way I Copyrighted a couple of my designs when I was hand making bed sets.
My understanding of the position on this in the two countries is: US: "No. Just no. Also, no. Go away. Don't even try." UK: "It might, just might, no promises, no real likelihood, but there's some modest chance that it might be worth a little tiny bit more than zero as evidence." I don't think that either country in any way regards it as proof.
Best you can hope for is proof of possession, which still doesn't prove you own the copyright. And even that is of limited value in places where you can send unsealed envelopes (like the UK), or where you could just seal a bit of an edge to keep the flap down. That makes it easy to fake. Registered mail might be more valuable, depending on how hard it is to send in a way that's easier to fake later. But walking into court with an envelope you mailed to yourself really isn't a great strategy.
Unless things are much different for bed set designs than for other things, your design was copyrighted as soon as you wrote it down/drew it up.
Actually--just to add more complexity--if we're talking about furniture(?), I'm not sure if it's copyrightable, because it's a useful object.
Ah, OK. This leads me to my long-term curiosity as to whether the copyright assertions on sewing patterns are enforceable. I suppose that would be off topic. But you notice that I post this post anyway.
