should I copyright my unpublished novel?

[lunerunit]

My Pop always told me I should copyright my work and as I'm filling out the online form to do so, something stops me. Will it cause problems if I copyright it before I have an agent?

[FK7]

Simply send YOURSELF a copy of the printed MS in a hard sealed envelope by mail and keep the postmarked package somewhere safe.

If you write COPYRIGHT on all pages, it is seriously going to annoy agents. I suppose if you officially copyright it and they never know it's not going to bother anyone, at least until you tell them if they offer representation.

I get where you're coming from: a writer from here (Quebec, Canada) illustrated cartoon books and wrote stories for children, inspired by Robinson Crusoe. A TV production firm stole his idea and made a TV series out of it, also for children, that generated millions of dollars in revenue. He's been fighting them for 14 years. The story recently came to light a year ago, and although a judge finally ruled in his favor, the scums at the production company are bringing the cause to appeal... even though EVERYONE knows they're blatantly ripped of his ideas (the evidence is uncanny...) the production company was hoping that by dragging this as long as possible, the lawyer fees would pile up and he'd give up. Now the story broke loose and the writer has gotten support from the entire province of Quebec and money has been raised to help him fight the assholes who stole his work.

FOURTEEN years. It is so disgusting that there are no words. To avoid that though, mailing yourself a MS is enough, there's no need to actually and officially copyright it.

[polymath]

The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration. U.S. Copyright Office *

Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. *

In general, registration is voluntary. Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work. *

Registration is recommended for a number of reasons. Many choose to register their works because they wish to have the facts of their copyright on the public record and have a certificate of registration. Registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney's fees in successful litigation. Finally, if registration occurs within 5 years of publication, it is considered prima facie evidence in a court of law. *

Because copyright is automatic in the U.S., it isn't necessarily necessary to register a copyright in the U.S. before submitting a manuscript. If a manuscript is registered, however, the odds are pretty good that a publisher will want edits and therefore register a substantialy revised, published version. Regardless, it'll be a different format edition from a manuscript. Every edition can have its own registration, and is required for litigation purposes if substantially different, ie., manuscript, trade paperback with added content like an editor's or a guest-written introduction, mass market paperback with added content, casecover with added content, etc.

About the only litigation value of a poor man's copyright is for establishing a time-date record. However, mailing a copy to one's self has no intrinsic legal value. Anything could be in an envelope marked with a postage cancelation. Mailing a copy to an agent, lawyer, notary public, or some such person for safekeeping does have some intrinsic legal value. Now, if a copy of a manuscript is notarized by a certified notary, that would have more legal weight than a poor man's copyright, which is very little because rights' infringement litigation cannot be brought in the U.S. without a valid Copyright Office registration.

Because copyright is automatic in the U.S., it's more or less practical to wait until acceptance for publication and let a publisher register the copyright to avoid creating unnecessary hassles and expenses, unless self-publishing. It is a best practice anymore to have a copyright registered in an author's name though, although some publishers still insist upon registering in their company's name in order to avoid the hassles of possible rogue copyright sales by an author and because the publisher has a vested interest in pursuing rights infringements and can then legitimately represent their interests commingled with an author's interests.

On a side note, it's a common legal practice to register a lapsed copyright work with added content. The original content is in the public domain due to the lapsed copyright. Adding new introductions, prefaces, forewords, afterwords, editorial commentary, illustrations, or other front- or backmatter makes that content copyright protected and creates a convenient legal fiction protecting lapsed copyright content.

* http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html

[FK7]

Of course the government is going to propose you register... they want your money.

In Canada mailing yourself a copy is perfectly acceptable and has won many cases in court. In the US it might be different, but I'm sure it still applies.

[polymath]

U.S. copyright law is one of, if not the most balanced laws in the land. It provides protection for individuals and commercial interests, foreign and domestic, and serves the greater good. Other countries have differing copyright laws, especially regarding the intrinsic legal merits of a poor man's copyright.

Jonathan Bailey discusses PMC's falacies eloquently, and less decorously than I'd publicly care to.
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2006/08/ ... -copyright

[lunerunit]

Thanks Polymath! That link was very helpful.

I am getting ready to set up a webpage and blog for my unpublished novel and I'm most concerned with protecting my main character and her name. I feel she is unique and I don't want to give her away. From what I understand, it is only $35.00 to register my work with the US copyright office online. For me to send my gigantic manuscript in the mail to myself would not cost much less than that.

I realize that the novel will change, especially after publication, but I just want to be safe when I show everything to the world. Of course I will only be posting a short preview of my work, but it is the idea of my main character that I intend to protect. I will also have illustrated drawings of her on the webpage and I intend to copyright those as well.

So is it my novel and the artwork that I should consider copyrighting or just the character and artwork? I still don't understand how this might cause trouble with an agent or publisher if the novel will be modified anyway.

[polymath]

A copyright is an automatic right in the U.S. Registering a copyright is a different being altogether. It's a due diligence process solely for certified recording of ownership of intellectual property, mostly for use in litigation processes.

Internet publication enjoys the same automatic copyright protection as printed works, more protection than printed works in some ways. No registration is necessary for preserving copyrights of any intellectual property, in the U.S. anyway. Registration of copyright is a step in the due diligence process for asserting ownership rights and entering a certified recording for the chain of custody of intellectual property.

If an intellectual property is published--meaning accessible to the public--in a fixed, tangible form, it's automatically protected from infringement. Without a registration, it's sort of protected on the honor sysytem. However, if a printed or audio/visually recorded registered work is infringed upon, then and only then in the U.S. federal courts, can the full consequences of litigation come into play. The various states' jurisdictions have varying laws regarding rights infringements; however, copyright is under federal jurisdiction by way of the U.S. Constitution as a superior subsidiarity right. States' civil courts can adjudicate rights infringement when there's no registration. But infringement litigation gets dicey in state courts.

The advantages of copyright registration arise purely for litigation purposes. There's actually a federal law requiring registration within three months of first date of publication. It's a civil code, not criminal, with no fines or jail time for noncompliance. The advantage of timely registration is the right to sue for litigation costs and punitive damages. Without timely registration, no litigation costs are recoupable and punitive damage claims can't be brought. The five-year clause, registration within five years of first date of publication, makes a copyright registration of an intellectual property prima facie evidence, meaning it's an accomplished fact on the face of it and not subject to impeachment. A late registration or a poor man's copyright is subject to impeachment in the U.S. I've heard of laughter erupting when someone mentions a poor man's copyright in a U.S. court as evidence of ownership.

Ideas, names, titles, short excerpts, insubstantial parts of intellectual property cannot be copyrighted. Song lyrics are comparatively short, a few words represents a substantial part of a song or a poem, so they enjoy more restrictive protection than longer creative works, like short stories and novels. A name, title, catch phrase, and so forth can be trademarked though. Trademark registration is a much more expensive, complicated, and tedious process than copyright registration.

Therefore, if you wish to preserve exclusive or first use of a character's name, it wouldn't be a best practice to post it on a Web site prematurely.

How might an author having a preexisting copyright registration create hassles for a publisher? It's a minor nuisance, if anything, that is easily worked around if desirable. The issues are that a title or names , for example, might need to be changed (what if the original title is a keeper, the best there's ever been?), a work might be harmed by sufficiently substantial revision, a guest commentator might have to be engaged, the bulk of the book block might need to be expanded, whatever, all time and expense concerns that might in the near term be deciding factors in acquistion or rejection.

In my view, registering a preliminary intellectual property in order to preserve the full entitlements of litigation is a good idea, but ultimately might not be worth the candle. If I wanted to go ahead anyway, I'd use a stand-in working title, at least, and consider incorporating other preliminary content that distinguishes the work sufficiently to afford protection, yet doesn't create any publication hassles down the road.

On another side note, U.S. copyright registration requires a mandatory copy deposit--digital or printed--of a completed printed or audio/visually recorded work with the Library of Congress. (Soley on the Internet publication doesn't require a mandatory copy deposit nor is registration typically necessary for full litigation benefits.) A Library of Congress catalog in place number, CIP, is assigned then. It's there then in the public record and perpetually accessible to the public. What if--what might happen if at some time in the future, someone stumbles on it and makes it available to the greater public? Mighty good or bad consequences might then ensue.

[lunerunit]

Hmmm...you give a lot to consider. I'm checking into preregistration but the fee is considerably higher. Perhaps I'll wait for a while before setting up that website.

[polymath]

I have no desire to discourage your ambitions. I do however agree that careful deliberations are in order.

I woke this morning with a unique yet commonplace word for a character's name that floored me and virtually inspired a complete story based on the name's meaning and ongoing mental compositions attempting to find the story in a person/persons I know who it fits like a kid glove. I won't be sharing the name until formal publication. I preserve all my A-game material from the ravages of premature publication.

[Quill]

On the same subject I ran into this just now at Guide to Literary Agents:

Be (Slightly) Afraid of Posting Your Work Online

Fundamentally, one of my biggest points is that you cannot copyright your ideas or concepts, so by putting stuff online, you are vulnerable. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Agents and editors don't steal stuff; writers steal stuff. So if you post your first chapter on your website, what are the chances some agent will come across your blog and say "Brilliant! I want to sign you!" Slim to none. But who will come across your site? Writers you don't know, and you cannot stop them from pilfering some of your ideas.

[polymath]

Informative and well-balanced article there by Chuck Sambuchino, Quill. Thanks. I appreciate his view that there's no unequivocably right or wrong answers of when and what to publish or not and what can happen on the Internet wilderness.

I've experienced my creations being plagiarized, infringed upon, and used fairly as well in appropriate cites, excerpts, quotes, and paraphrases. I've seen my ideas copied, been beaten to the press, and left out in the cold too. It's especially painful when someone has borrowed from my work and I'm the one who gets accused of plagiarism. C'est la vie.

[Robin]

Is registering with the Writers Guild a good idea.
http://www.wgawregistry.org/webrss/

Just a thought instead of copyrighting.

[polymath]

Depositing a manuscript with the Writer's Guild to document date of copyright ownership has a comparable legal value to depositing a copy with an officer of a court, ie, a lawyer, a court notary, etc. However, without a U.S. Copyright Office registration of a printed or audio/visually recorded creation--excepting Internet publication--a rights infringement case cannot be brought in U.S. federal courts. It gets really complicated when there's an international issue. The way to avoid international complications is to register in the U.S. when U.S. distribution occurs.

A Writer's Guild registration could be supporting proof of ownership for a late registration with the Copyright Office on an appeal of a challenge brought to block registration of a contested work in consideration of bringing a case in federal court, if it's Copyright Office registered within five years of first date of publication. Otherwise, the registration is subject to challenge and potential impeachment.

A Writer's Guild registration could have standing in state court jurisdictions, depending on the jurisdiction's procedures and rules of evidence. But again, copyright litigation is a federal purview in the U.S. Practitioners of copyright law are mostly federal law experts in intellectual property rights and applications for registering ownership. I expect there are state experts in New York and California, perhaps Florida and Illinois, but don't hold out much hope for other states having banned word practitioners of their states' copyright laws.

The predominant issue is that many if not most publications vulnerable to infringement cross state borders, and are therefore subject to interstate commerce laws, re: federal laws. Like if something I created on the South Atlantic Coast was infringed upon by someone on the North Atlantic Coast, the state where the actual infringement took place would have jurisdictional standing. I can't bring an infringement lawsuit in my home state's courts unless the parties are all residents of the same state.