Copyright Your Content
Things you may like to know about copyrights
Jan Kovarik 17th April 2001
You
may be under the false impression that before you can get your text
published, you must get the copyright to your own written material.
You might also think that in order to get the copyright, you must
"apply" for it. This is just not so. In the following few paragraphs,
I'll give you some simple facts about copyrights that may help you in
your quest to get published.
First, it is important to understand
that you cannot "copyright" an idea; you can only copyright what you
have written. That is, you might have just written the greatest self-help
manual on how to breed guppies. And you did, indeed, file for your
copyright with the Library of Congress. Three weeks after completing the
formal copyrighting process, you find out that the manager of your
neighborhood pet store (where you've been buying your guppies) has just
sold the TV rights to a new hit show "Breeding Guppies" and he is
using many of the same principles that you've outlined in your manual on
how to go about guppy breeding.
So, naturally, since this is the 21st
Century and you live in America, you want to sue the guy. You think you
have a sure thing, and you are dreaming of the million-dollar award that
the jury is sure to give you. But you'd better not put a down payment
on that Guppy Farm in Iowa just yet.
The manual you wrote, the exact words,
phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters that you wrote, belong to
you. It is illegal for anyone to reproduce or use any of that text, in
part or in whole, for profit without your permission. However, you must be
able to prove that your exact words have been stolen before you can get an
award for copyright infringement. So, you know that guy with his hit TV
series? Well, unless he's reading from your manual word-for-word, or
attempting to sell your manual as a supplemental text that he's written,
then he's probably doing nothing illegal. He's just using the idea of
breeding guppies.
You do "own" the copyright to your
text, all its words and clever phrases. And you don't even have to file
with the Library of Congress in order to have the copyright on your text.
The copyright is conferred upon you the minute you write your New York
Times Bestseller. All you have to do is be able to prove, beyond any
doubt, the date that you wrote the material. For your protection, then, it
is wise to print and date your material, and establish with a third party
through a written communication that you have just finished your text. At
that time, you can legally affix the copyright symbol (the letter c inside
a circle) to your work.
Now here's where a formal copyright
comes in. By filing with the Library of Congress (and paying them their
required application fee), you can establish definitively a date of
copyright that will stand up in any court of law. Any judge or jury will
defer to your date over someone else who can merely claim by word of mouth
that his text came before yours. It's a good idea to formally copyright
any text that you are planning to market. So, if you're convinced that
the world population-at-large is in desperate need of "Breeding Guppies,
What Every Ichthyologist Needs to Know" and you plan to sell it on Ebay
for $19.95, you should apply for a formal copyright.
Just having the copyright, however,
doesn't mean that other people can't quote your work. They may do so,
as long as you are given full credit for having written it prior to their
use. This is called a "reference" or a "citation" and generally,
whatever passage is being quoted will appear offset in quotation marks (so
that the reader can visualize which words belong to someone other than the
author of the text in which the quote appears). Of course, at present the
contingent of Copyright Police is not up to tracking down every single
instance of copyright infringement, and chances are that not everyone
cites original authors as scrupulously as they should, so beware of whom
you casually let look at or read your text (or to whom you give a copy).
Copyrights are not forever. Typically,
a copyright lasts for 50 years past the natural life of the original
author. Authors? heirs may sometimes re-apply for copyrights, but
generally written texts that are this old are considered "public
domain" and may be reproduced without paying the author's family a
royalty fee.
In the publishing world, you will find
that many publications require that you relinquish your copyrights to the
work in return for having your work published. This is a fairly standard
procedure?unless your name happens to be Stephen King or Danielle
Steele. Once you've relinquished your copyright to a given work, you can
not sell or submit that text again unless you get express approval from
the publisher that now owns the copyright.
There are sites on the World Wide Web
where you can post your work for others to read or use as they see fit,
so-called "free sites." In cases such as this, there should be a
disclaimer that anyone who uses or reproduces your work must give you full
credit. Whether this happens all the time is certainly a matter for some
speculation, but your safeguard is that you own the copyright and if you
find that someone is profiting from your work and that you have not been
compensated, you can file a copyright infringement suit against them.
As of the date of this article, the
current copyright fee is $30. All the instructions and necessary forms can
be found on U.S. Copyright Office's web site: http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/.
I have copyrighted several texts and advise that you mail your application
with a "Return Receipt Requested" from the U.S. Post Office. This is
your proof that the Copyright Office has received your copyright
application.
Author Information:
Jan Kovarik
Jan K., The Proofer
jankproof@aol.com
http://www.janktheproofer.com
