Topic awaiting preservation: copyright (Page 1 of 1)

Perhaps this is a stuuupid question - but its been bugging me recently, so here goes:

How does one officially "copyright" their work? is sticking the - © - symbol and year on it enough?

This applies to all sorts of art work, design work, photography (so if this is the wrong place to ask, sorry!)



...oh yeah I also heard from a friend a while back, that posting work to yourself by some kind of registered mail, is enough - but that seems a little odd...(and expensive) - any thoughts? -

google is your friend and immediatly finds this: 10 Big Myths about copyright explained when asked about "copyright how to".

to quote:

quote:

---

The correct form for a notice is:
"Copyright [dates] by [author/owner]"

---

So long,

->Tyberius Prime

Your work is immediately protected by copyright once it's recorded in a fixed form, whether you attach a notice or not. Attaching a notice simply informs others who the copyright holder is.

Registering your works with the U.S. Copyright Office, however, does bring advantages. See their Web site for more information.

As for proper form, that's also spelled out on their Web site here, which isn't exactly like the quote above.



(Edited by Wes on 07-29-2004 11:41)

makes for an interesting read those "myths"

many thanks!

One thing you can do to personally protect your interests, is post copyright items to yourself by special/recorded delivery, security sealed, and leave them sealed in archive. It would be a good idea to get a witness signature or stamp of some sort. Signing across each seal can also help disprove tampering.

Should there ever come a time when copyright is disputed, the chronology of your case becomes easier to prove. I don't know how legitimate this is in cases of personal copyrights, but I've seen the system used unofficially by various small companies dealing in print/design.

(Edited by White Hawk on 07-29-2004 18:24)

Funny how you posted this on the day I started covering Copyright Law at Uni for my Digital Animation course.
The method White Hawk was talking about is, "The Poor Man's Copyright" and can be effective in some cases. Simply putting a © doesnt neccessarily mean it's copyrighted and what not - if you include more detail such as your basic personal details then that should suffice if it's for personal use and within a small scale. But if it's for general publication, then the procedure is slightly more different as it would be if you did work for a client, or whatever.

On a sidenote, bare in mind that you cannot copyright ideas, styles and techniques.

Can I ask what you are copyrighting or are you just curious?

"You know you have been doing 3d too long when you walk into a church and think, "God, the polycount of this place must be huge!"

My wife, who works in one of the largest Intellectual Property (copyright/trademark/patent) law firms in the country showed the page that Tyberius Prime mentioned, 10 Big Myths about copyright explained, to a couple of attorneys, and both said that the info was correct. Keep in mind we're in the U.S.

Now - that doesn't mean that putting a copyright notice on the site will keep someone from saying it's not copyrighted. Trust me - it happened to me!

Hi all, some interesting points made - re: White Hawk - I wasn't sure if that was an Urban myth or real...

I am basically curious, I love photography and photoshop design (basic stuff) but I'm also in the process of doing myself a website - and was talking to a friend who also wants to do a site (but with other peoples work submitted to it) - hence the conversation started and rolled on from there...

also just to add more confusion - I'm in the UK here so our laws must differ a bit

many thanks...

I'll ask my wife if she has some reference links for the U.K. Some of the large firms they deal with get patents and copyrights all over the world, so....