Do you copyright your work before you share it online? If not, how do you protect it?
Hey everyone, I've been working on a passion project for a while and am coming to the final presentation.
I've been told by friends and family to put some protection on it, but I'm curious to know what is and isn't copyright worthy.
I look forward to hearing your advice.
@Pip Jamieson @Jamil @Shivanee Tailor
Replies5
- @Matt Percival Wow Matt thank you for your response. That is very useful information, I really appreciate it.
- Hi @Christina-Marie C All depends on the medium, but the simplest way to protect your intellectual property (IP – it's a more accessible way to think about and claim ownership of your own creative work than copyright, which involves legal registration) is to make a hard copy of whatever it is, mail it to yourself and only open it (witnessed) if you need to legally challenge someone who's using, plagiarising or monetising your work. It's a very useful record and can even help if a client decides not to pay you for work or ideas that they then choose to use. Keep a record of time spent on a project as well, it's a crude but very useful way of valueing the work done if you need to seek compensation.Otherwise, always ensure everything you produce and share is visibly labelled or the file is digitally watermarked with 'IP of xx + Date'. But sharing is sharing and inherently risky, it involves a lot of trust in the people you're sharing with so limit your audiences if you can.These days, blockchain is an option, but that's a whole other process!Hope that helps! Matt
- @Christina-Marie Clarke you can register a whole collection for a single fee like a music album or an artbook. More info here: https://www.copyright.gov/about/fees.html
- @Leonard FUNK CAT® Wolf Thank you Leonard, I really appreciate your response. The US way seems clear cut, I like it. If you were to register a work under the US Government, would there be a single cost or does it vary on the content?
- I'm not a lawyer ... I believe in the USA a work is automatically copyrighted when you affix a clear creation date on/to it: i.e Date Of Conception (DOC). However you can only sue for damages that started from theft or infringement from the date the copyright is registered with the US Government. Can someone take your work and misuse it in some way harmful to you is the first question but I do not know the EU system.
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