Its in the title.
Just want to know how many people here got it and if possible, what procedure did you use?
My local government only allows FINISHED novels to be copyrighted or as many chapters that are out at the time of copyright.
So I had to copyright like 160 chaps of my novel and will do more as they gather, but it's really hectic and expensive.
Cost me 200$ just to get these copyrighted, didn't even ask about the future lol.
What do fellow authors do?
Copyrights - How many original novel authors have them?
If you created something and have evidence of that, you automatically own copyright over it. It isn't like some kind of patent so purchasing some kind of copyright with money is just draining you of money you don't have to spend. The only use you would have for paying for something like that is a faster resolution in copyright claims when the recipient or domain host is under the same jurisdiction of that copyright you bought. (If you bought one in the US, it is only even moderately helpful if the person who stole your work is also in the US)
Besides, those who are going to steal you work aren't going to care about any kind of copyright. I would simply recommend you follow a standard procedure of sending DMCA's to anyone who steals your work, or if that fails, send them to the domain host of where the stolen work is posted. (If they post it on some wordpress blog and refuse to take it down, send the DMCA along with relevant proof of ownership to wordpress)
- Edited
shinigami8671 If your country is one of those linked, then what you just wrote isn't correct and you just got scammed.
https://copyrighthouse.org/countries-berne-convention
Edit: And just forget about the advertised copyright-registry. It's legal junk since the Berne Convention stipulates that if you wrote it it's automatically yours (some proof might come in handy, like for example being published with a time-stamp older than any other infringer).
StenDuring My country is indeed listed there.
The payment hasn't gone through yet (takes 3 business days) so I can still stop it. Will check about this with an actual lawyer before going any further.
I was using a firm to do all this for me so they were handling everything.
Wolfick I did NOT know that. Wow. Really should have paid attention in some of those law classes.
So there really isnt a need to get it copyrighted especially since it costs so damn much.
Ty for all the info man!
shinigami8671 I publish on Amazon and they have a record of publish date. Other than that, I don't worry about copyright infringement. You can't stop thieves from stealing.
Actual books, whether they are on digital media or paperback, should have an isbn. I would highly recommend you use one (if you don't) as they are required for selling books, and while it doesn't come under copyright jurisdiction, if you have proof of purchase of the isbn, it's a pretty strong proof of evidence that, "hey, this is mine."
I probably wouldn't recommend bowker's as their price is enormous (unless you're buying under the largest quantity... America and their bulk discounts...), and the free services like smashwords etc are terribly as they put their own adverts etc on your book (considering they technically paid for/arranged the isbn) and iirc they own the isbn as well even after you use it.
My country's main isbn provider has a more than reasonable pricing for them, but it is always your choice what you do.
Info on isbn's:
https://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/03/isbn-for-self-publishers-answers-to-20-of-your-questions/comment-page-7/
Bowker-Thorpe (Aus isbn provider-> isbn's are global):
https://www.myidentifiers.com.au/isbn/main
shinigami8671 And just so we're absolutely clear about this. You wrote it, you have the copyright. That's the legas aspect (provided we're talking Berne signatories). You might still end up in a situation where you need to prove that you did indeed write it.
One way , which coincidentally happens to be interesting for people like us, is to publish the stuff, for example on Webnovel (or any other place that comes with a login). Now you only need to prove that the account is yours.
I personally always dump a copy of my stuff on sites where I'm explicitly able to check the box for 'all rights reserved'. I don't care if I have one read per week there. I just want that timestamp associated with "No I did not give my copyright away, so please piss off."
You're obviously screwed if someone else can show an earlier publication. Probably not a major problem for people who write novels, but if you're writing music chances are much higher two people accidentally write pretty much the same music.
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It's pretty simple. If a person posts more than two books officially, it becomes a series and they own the title and the ideas in it. However, every single industry goes by different copy write laws. For instance, in research, you can't use three words of someone else or that is considered stealing their work.
In fiction, it is much more nuanced, and don't even get started about intellectual property. Basically, you can not only own your work, but the idea of your work also belongs to you. For instances, the name of characters can be used in copywrite cases, and the list goes on and on.
However, for the purposes of webnovel it's much simpler and all comes down to claims. If you file a DMCA claim, and are the author of the original work, then they will have to take it down. Otherwise, if you are not the person who wrote the book, and the person of the book never finds out you did it, they can't technically take it down.
Also, this site probably has to follow international guidelines for copywrite law, so.... yeah,, it's complicated but all comes down to the original author's interpretation of the said authors work.
Hope that helps
MysteryBox DMCA is a US thingie, but overall what you wrote is correct. There are several EU nations when it's enough to prove copyright infringements to force a takedown, ie the copyright holder (or licencee) doesn't have to get involved.
For example sites have been shut down entirely rather than merely being forced to remove stolen content (in which case non-reported content or even strictly legal content got taken down as well since the entire website vanished).
Could be worth to note that the copyright holder is only free to do whatever as long as said holder also holds all associated licenses. Ie, you get contracted by Webnovel you still hold the copyright, but you're highly unlikley to be allowed to demand they take down the novel they contracted from a hypothetical Chinese sister site they cooperate with.
Or you can do what's called 'the poor man's copyright,' which is basically printing out what you have, putting it in an envelope and register-mailing it to yourself. When it comes, it has the stamp of when it was mailed and you just don't open it until you need to.