Forum Moderators: not2easy
I’m looking on:
This Gov website [opsi.gov.uk]
My argument is that anything I publish I own the copyright automatically my friend says I have to jump through hoops like mail myself in a stamped envelope sent recorded.
I can't find the answer... Whos right? anyone know more about this?
From the excellent UK resource, own-it.org...
Getting copyright protection is easy. All original works of an author, set down in material form, have immediate copyright protection.
[own-it.org...]
and;
It is often said that to get copyright protection you should post a copy of your work to yourself in a sealed envelope. This does not give you copyright protection, but rather it helps in proving the date the work was created.
Their emphasis.
[own-it.org...]
I hope beers were agreed in the settlement of the argument :-)
Syzygy
All the other stuff is not related to creating copyright, since that is automatic, it is to do with protecting your copyright, which is a whole 'nother issue.
Most countries (160 of them) operate under the terms of Berne Convention when it comes to copyright, which means that copyright is international, not just confined to the country where the work originated.
WIPO (The World Intellectual Property Organization), a UN body, administers the various international treaties in this area.
As an example of copyright theft.
Person 1 takes person 2 to court for copyright theft only having a copy of the supposed original document. Person 2s copy is an exact duplicate.
For the supposed copyright holder (person 1) to win his/her case they would have to prove that they were in fact the original writer. If they cant the case would be thrown out.
Therefore no copyright exists until one or the other persons have an unopened version of the text availble as proof.
It is correct however to say that copyright is held when the text is originally written. However if person 2 sends himself a copy of the text in an envelope as recorded delivery, knowing that person 1 hasnt, the government will see proof of copyright by Person 2, and Person 2 would win this case.
Steven F.
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This was his reply, anyone got anything to add?
Therefore no copyright exists until one or the other persons have an unopened version of the text availble as proof.
That just isn't true.
Copyright exists automatically as soon as the original creative work exists in a tangible form. Mailing a text/work to yourself is one of many, many methods of protecting copyright, a completely different thing.
the government will see proof of copyright by Person 2, and Person 2 would win this case.
Thankfully, governments do not adjudicate in the courts (in most countries anyway!) and copyright is in any case an international rather than a domestic concept.
That aside, the reality is that legal cases taken over copyright are rarely so straightforward as to end up hinging on something as simple as having an upopened, dated, version of a work.
This practice is often referred to as "poor man's copyright" and there is no provision in law for it and any country that I am aware of, unlike formally registering a copyright, which is provided for in the law of almost all countries, though even that is fraught with difficulty given the international nature of copyright.
Most references to mailing dated works are careful to point out that it "may help" or "could help" establish copyright - because essentially 'proof' like this is only worth whatever the courts decide it is worth in any given situation, and that is never a foregone conclusion in any legal case.
The reality is that while creating copyright is easy, protecting copyright is anything but straightforward, which is why so many lawyers have gotten so fat advising on it.
