I'm a new member to writingforums and have a concern that may have been discussed in the past. Apparently, from my understanding, anyone can copy and paste anyone else's work - blogs, etc. Is there some apparatus that only allows the author to copy their own work to another document? I wonder and worry about plagarism. KayeShannon visit my blog - just read it, dont copy it!
At the moment, yes it is possible for anyone to copy and paste your work and take it as their own. It is one of the risks you have to talk when it comes to posting on an online forum. The ONLY way to protect your work this way, it to copyright it or simply not bother to post it at all!
The very fact of your work being viewable on someone else's computer makes it available for illegal copying. But you are automaticlly the copyright owner, whether you register your copyright or not. Registering gives you a stronger case in proving ownership, if it comes down to it.
cog is right... you don't have to 'copyright' your work, because it's automatically copyrighted as soon as it's completed and exists in a reproducible form... registering that copyright really only gives you the added benefit of collecting damages and court costs, in the event you have to sue [or are sued] and win... it doesn't make it any easier to prove you actually wrote it, just shows on what date you registered it... see the official skinny here: www.copyright.gov any country that's a signatory to the berne convention will have similar laws... as far as the cut and paste thing goes, making that not doable on a site still won't keep anyone from just typing your work out, or simply printing the screen, if they really want to use your words... but the chances of any of that happening to unpublished writings and the work then being published under the plagiarist's by line are slim to none... the best way to protect your writing by proving you're the writer, is to save all your first notes and an earlier draft or two, that show the development of an idea into a finished work... no plagiarist will have all that... and it's too much trouble to go to, for anyone to bother faking it all...
As the previous people said, it is already copyrighted as soon as your done, but if you do see your work being copied it would be advisable to go ahead and alert the mods or such, and you probably need proof which could be hard to attain. So in general, it's only best if you don't post everything because then it can't really be stolen (Unless they steal a character name/place or something but then again thats just downright weak.) So as long as you don't post your entire poem/novel or such you'll be somewhat safe (or at least I believe) on the website.
Thanks for all the very helpful input - read my blog about the English language and it's quirks. KayeShannon
