I must ask these questions: What is the best way to copyright my project by myself? Or how wold I go about copyrighting my project, as well, my ideas if i were to share them with a co-writer on a project? Please express as much information as possible, I have book on the subject, but I feel other writers with experience may have a brighter, stern input to this issue.
You get it automatically. If you doodle a random figure on a notebook it is automatically copyrighted, as far as I know.
Yep. As soon as you set your work down in a "tangible medium of expression," it is copyrighted by operation of law (In the U.S.). If you want to Register the work with the copyright office, you just mail in the appropriate form along with the required fee.
Thanks you for the thoughts. I am working my project right now. I am already in the middle of the story.
info above is correct... for the details: www.copyright.gov but seasoned writers don't bother registering the copyright for their books... that's done when [if] they get a publisher and the publisher takes care of it... if you have a co-writer, you MUST have a collaboration contract in place before either one of you writes a single word, if you want to avoid serious problems later on... go to www.wga.org and click on 'writers'... then go to 'contracts' and you can download the 'collaboration agreement'... with a few simple word changes, it will work just as well for prose as it does for scripts...
Thanks, your information mammamaia helps me a whole bunch! Now, i have the information necessary for copyright protection.
I have a question about copyright. My publisher is telling me to register for copyright, but when do you do it? Now or when revisions with the editor are made?
Your publisher is telling you to copyright it? They should be doing this on your behalf when the manuscript is accepted.
Here's what it says: Copyright The Author is responsible for registering the copyright if they so choose. The Author shall hold harmless and indemnify the Publisher from any recovery finally sustained by reason of any violations of copyright. The Publisher will place a copyright notice on all versions of the work.
You need not register your copyright for a novel novel before it is published. Strictly speaking, you need not do so before you need to take a copyright infringement case to court. For a short story, don't ever bother registering unless and until you need to take someone to court. A registered copyright is a prerequisite for filing a complaint ikn court, but you already own the copyright from the moment you have a completed draft. Always keep all your intermediate drafts. They are your primary documentation in the event of a copyright ownership dispute.
By the way, that is under United States copyright laws, which I know applies to you, LMC. There may be minor differences in other countries that are signatory to the Berne Convention, so those of you not in the United States, check your own country's copyright site to make sure.
Another thing to keep in mind is that with copyright infringement, damages can be hard to prove. When you register can affect whether you get statutory damages and/or attorneys fees, which is important if you can't prove much in the way of actual damages.
The main thing is to be able to stop someone from using your stolen work and to secure your own reputation.
