The Game Crafter

Lorelei Douglas

Hmmm...

tarotbear said:
Yes - if you publish something it is understood to be 'copyrighted' by you - BUT - you don't have to do a registry or all that to have it copyrighted - but you do have to have the © - year - your name on it somewhere - and do the 'mail it back to yourself routine' so that it has a postmark on the envelope (and NEVER NEVER OPEN THE ENVELOPE).
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I'm not sure the mail back routine is necessary though? The fact that you appear on AT, TGC and various other blogs provides verification of your ownership and the dates. Although including your name, copyright symbol and date is very wise to do indeed.

I found the website below very enlightening and comforting...

http://www.publicdomainsherpa.com/index.html

Here is the section defining what copyright means:

"Copyright protection is automatic

A work is protected by copyright as soon as it’s fixed in tangible form. “Fixed in tangible form” means you can see or hear or touch the work, whether by looking, listening to, or touching the thing itself ... or perceiving it by means of a machine or device (like a movie projector or a computer).

You don’t have to register with the Copyright Office to get a copyright. You used to, but not anymore. (But you do need a registration if you want to sue someone for copyright infringement).

You don’t have to mark your work as copyrighted, either. (That used to be required, too.) But marking a work as copyrighted gives people notice that someone owns the legal rights, so most copyright owners do put notices on their works."
 

HudsonGray

The 'mail it to yourself' is called a Poor Man's Copyright. However it never has held up in court and is not anything that would prove a thing about who the original artist is or who owns the copyright. There's no way of knowing that the envelope wasn't steamed open and something new put in, or that you mailed yourself an empty envelope and added the item later.

Getting the deck notarized, that possibly would work, but the one thing that WILL stand up in a court of law is the official copyright filing with the www.copyright.gov site.
 

tarotbear

HudsonGray said:
The 'mail it to yourself' is called a Poor Man's Copyright. However it never has held up in court and is not anything that would prove a thing about who the original artist is or who owns the copyright. There's no way of knowing that the envelope wasn't steamed open and something new put in, or that you mailed yourself an empty envelope and added the item later.

Getting the deck notarized, that possibly would work, but the one thing that WILL stand up in a court of law is the official copyright filing with the www.copyright.gov site.
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I would need to see 'proof' that it has never held up in court, or I would put that under 'urban myths'.

From the last time I went to the US Copyright Office site - it's rather easy to and rather inexpensive to register for anyone who would rather just put everything in the hands of the U S government.
 

tarotbear

Everyone - including this article - keeps saying 'In fact' - but I don't see a single claim that documents this. In fact - anyone could say anything like I just did.

Need to see a case-specific documentation where a court has declared that a 'poor man's copyright' is of no value and decided against a specific case based on this reason.
 

Debra

You can't prove a negative.

Since there's excellent advice on how to easily claim copyright from the US copyright office, why perpetuate an urban legend by advising people to do something that legal websites including the US copyright office say is not effective?
 
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