Copywrite Question

[Orwellinator]

Well here's a problem with this forum and probably every other writing forum out there. Sadly I dont think this problem can be avoided. So lets say Tom writes a story and posts it on a writing forum. The story turns out to be a hit and everyone loves it. One person who read the story, Bob, gets an idea. He copies and pastes the story into microsoft word on his computer and makes minor changes to the story. He then sends the story to a writing contest and wins. As a result, the piece is published in a magazine and Bob gets some kind of award.

CAN WE STOP THIS FROM HAPPENING? (even if Tom does find out about this, how could he prove that he wrote it.

[fli]

You can't stop this from happening.
But if you can prove it, you have a case to small claims court.

Unless you're a very big name writer, I'm sure there's nothing much of a profit you can gain.

Only your words are protected.
Ideas are not protected, according to the copywrite.

My story "Devil's Food Cake" which is a very original story, has already had been taken. The whole ending, I mean, the whole idea. Not the words. It's been posted on a blog.

Go read it, it's a fucking good read-- just don't scroll down at the comments... or you'll spoil the ending.

There isn't anything I can do.
Except, keep my story as is and try to publish it.

Although this isn't much-- consider doing the poor man's copywrite.

Put your story in an envelope, seal it shut, and mail it to yourself. Save it, and if some sort of discrepancy occurs, you can at least prove that you wrote your thing by a certain date before the other.

[TrevorW]

Well for one we are lucky enough that this site is a corporation and has some merit. Perhaps Tom could present the original poster's post as proof of the authorship.

For two, it happens. You can either sign, date, and mail each piece to yourself so that it have been processed by the federal government. (the self mailing provides a legal date that would stand before anyone else's) OR you can have everything you write copy righted -- the second won't happen, and the first is silly.

Honestly, you can win a fight if you really want to. However, most people on here don't even have to worry about this. I doubt many people here will be the next F Scott Fitzgerld or Adam Douglas.

Eh

[TrevorW]

At 1/29/10 12:47 AM, fli wrote:

Wow now my tip is useless :P
I didnt see your post when I started to write mine, o well.

Another person that knows!

[Kajenx]

Yeah, this is always a problem. Go talk to the music industry and see how they feel about the internet.

Personally, I'm only going to post short practice works on here, and work on my bigger stuff in private. It's sad it has to be this way, but if you want to sell something eventually, you don't want to put it out where everyone can see it.

Then again, if you don't really care about selling it, it doesn't matter if someone steals it, so there you go.

[TrevorW]

If people feel I am good enough to take from, then by all means do it. For every poem they take my artistic grows in arrogance :P

[Pathnine]

First off, read the FAQ at the copyright office: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/
Secondly, a lot of poetry magazines (and probably other types of magazines) do not publish work that is previously published on message boards, blogs, self published books, etc..., so that's a consideration, too. To the best of my knowledge, there's nothing you can do to stop people from stealing your work, except to refrain from publishing it in the first place. If you want to go the route of getting an official copyright, it costs about $50 last I checked (3 years ago), but you can really get your money's worth if you send them a data disk to copyright. They only charge once per piece of media that you send them, but all the information on the media is copyrighted with that charge. So, you could send them a data disk with 150 word documents on it, and all of those documents would be copyrighted. If you're a musician, you can send them a CDR with 40 recordings (or as many will fit on the CDR) on it from all of your demos or albums, and all of those songs will be copyrighted. Or you could send them one album (with the booklet and artwork, etc...) and that album would be copyrighted. I recommend you read some books on the subject. Trademarks and Patents are interesting, too :) -Daniel

[FrankoTaco]

If you format your work as a screenplay, stage play, a film treatment/synopsis. a TV series Bible, or a plethora of other film based stylings. You can register them with the Writers Guild of America for only $20. And you don't have to be a member to use it. can register anything that qualifies by simply paying, uploading a PDF of the file and boom its protection that is usable in court.

[gumOnShoe]

There's a nice little thing at the bottom of this webpage.

"© Copyright 1995-2010 Newgrounds, Inc. All Rights Reserved."

Which means that technically anything you post here is copyrighted, at the very least by Newgrounds. However, Newgrounds is never going to make a claim of ownership on your work. What it does provide though is dated & time stamped evidence that you wrote it.

At the very least, you can find out who the editor of the competition was, e-mail them and try to settle it in a civil fashion. Most contests have anti-theft clauses and what not. Otherwise, Fli is pretty much correct.

You should know though, that posting anything on the internet is technically publishing it, so it would be difficult to find a publisher for that particular story once you have done so.

[snpurerandomness]

any questions about copywrite then look at the bbc's privacy policy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/privacy/
if you work in copywrite then if theres a problem you see what the bbc says