When you're posting your work here, that's a form of web publishing. It's a good idea to take a few steps and protect your work. My fiancee (a member of this forum) had her poems stolen from another forum she belongs to. The thief was reposting her work on a blog and taking credit for it. Not that anyone here would do that kind of thing, but it prompted me to write an article for my blog about online copyright. This has a few tips on how to protect your work, and I thought that some of you might be interested in it. Feedback is welcome. Here's the link.
Hello, Sidewinder. I just checked out your site and read the article and agree with you 100%. I had something happen to my friend a few years back and was actually the one who stumbled on the thief's website. I really hope more people take a look at what you had to say and take it seriously. Thanks again. JC
Thank you for the informative article. I was looking for a refresher on the subject this morning, your timing couldn't have been better for me. I am very grateful. (You have earned rep)
there's lots of good advice there, but i do have to make a couple of points: first of all, you need to make it clear that the link you provide is only canada's version of copyright laws and that they may differ in some ways from the uk and us versions, as well as those of other countries, even if they're all signatories to the berne convention... it would be best to add the links to at least the us/uk versions as well... the us info is found here: www.copyright.gov and www.uspto.gov... though i doubt the differences, if any, will be great, they do need to be considered... secondly, the 'poor man's copyright' has no legal standing in us courts, though i'm told it does have some in the uk and maybe in canada/australia... that also needs to be made clear, so as to not mislead readers of this otherwise fine 'warning' article... and the bottom line should be re-emphasized in summation, imo... making it crystal clear that the only sure protection is to never post a piece of work anywhere on the internet, if you hope to have it published someday... for poetry this means don't post your poems at all and for prose, it means to only post very brief excerpts... after all, no publisher with half a brain is going to pay you for work that can be read for free!... regardless, it was good of you to make that article available... i hope you'll take my suggestions in the caring spirit they were made and incorporate them into the piece... love and hugs, maia
Thanks for the rep guys -- and thanks for the pointers there, mamma. I'm going to touch up the article with a few of those points tonight. Good to be clear.
Most people online will remove content if you ask them to, be ready to prove it's your work, often many don't understand that taking other people intellectual work is infringing on their copy-write, until you explain it to them. But I am chiming in today with a couple of links to places where you can search for duplicate instances of your work so that you can start the process to have it removed. Try Copyscape and Plagiarism Checker, I have used them both in conjunction with protecting my companies content.
