Where Do I Go...

[Ladytiger]

to get poems copyrighted?

[captorquewrench]

mail yourself a copy. DO NOT OPEN IT. keep it sealed (you might want to mark the outside of the envelope as to the contents, say the poem title)

then, should you have to take anyone to court in a copyright infringement suit, present the judge with the sealed envelope. The postmark sate is then your copyright date.



BUT if you go through a major publisher, they will either hold the copyright or assign it to you.

[cleaningla]

This site might help.

http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/

[NINK]

i don't have the answer but i'd like to know. how do you get a publisher? can you just send them stuff or what?

[mesue]

Make sure that you send them in as a collection, my hubby writes songs and it costs the same amount for him to get a bunch copyrighted as it does for him to get one. It costs 30.00 fo songs. And I am assuming its the same for poems. You can print off the forms to apply from the website but if you don't have access to a printer just email them your address and what type of form you need and they will send it to you in about 2 weeks. Good Luck! We also do the poor mans copyright too since hubby sings his songs at churches until we get back the other one and we also keep the poor mans one too.

[elsaleh01]

www.copyright.gov Thats what i just did... i just sent in A poem like a week and a half ago foR CopYRighting..... IT COSTS 30$ PPER PIECE OF WORK... HOPE THAT HLEPS... SORRY i had a 15 month old pushing the caps lock button for me lol

[ckerr4]

I have read in several sources that (if you are going to submit something to a publisher)you should not announce that you have copyrighted your stuff. It is generally considered (by the industry) to be copyrighted when you write it, and even more so when it is published - copyrighted to the author, that is, with rights to the publisher as outlined by the contract.

The reasoning behind that is that if you send something in with a big copyright symbol, or make a big deal out of saying that something is copyrighted, some publishers will takes it as meaning you don't trust them or you expect them to steal your work. They will see it, at best, as naive, and at worst, arrogant, presumptious, and insulting. I'm not calling you these things, mind you, just relaying what I have read.

So many people in the business suggest that you either hold off on the copyright or not announce it right in your first query. Then you can always ask later if it will cause a problem. It might; I'm not sure. I have heard though, that in writing the poem, printing it, and sending it in to be published, you have a de facto copyright. That is similar to what captorque mentioned.

[ckerr4]

http://www.poewar.com (Here's a site you might enjoy)

Here's one of the myths about copyrights:

1) "If it doesn't have a copyright notice, it's not copyrighted."

This was true in the past, but today almost all major nations follow the Berne copyright convention. For example, in the USA, almost everything created privately and originally after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not. The default you should assume for other people's works is that they are copyrighted and may not be copied unless you know otherwise. There are some old works that lost protection without notice, but frankly you should not risk it unless you know for sure.
It is true that a notice strengthens the protection, by warning people, and by allowing one to get more and different damages, but it is not necessary. If it looks copyrighted, you should assume it is. This applies to pictures, too. You may not scan pictures from magazines and post them to the net, and if you come upon something unknown, you shouldn't post that either.

The correct form for a notice is:


"Copyright [dates] by [author/owner]"

You can use C in a circle © instead of "Copyright" but "(C)" has never been given legal force. The phrase "All Rights Reserved" used to be required in some nations but is now not legally needed most places. In some countries it may help preserve some of the "moral rights."

[jaimethepooh]

ty ckerr4

[ckerr4]

yw

I write (riveting educational material, lol - no really, my son loves to read it - elementary school level stuff), so I don't deal with the copyright mostly - I generally would not freelance the stuff I've already freelanced to someone else. :rolleyes:

BUT I have read a lot about writing - I write, I teach writing, I work (marginally) in the writing industry. I try to keep afloat of what's going on:D (even from my dark little cave here where nothing gets out except through electronic transmission, and nothing gets in except pepsi:D:D )

[Legion600]

Originally posted by captorquewrench
mail yourself a copy. DO NOT OPEN IT. keep it sealed (you might want to mark the outside of the envelope as to the contents, say the poem title)

then, should you have to take anyone to court in a copyright infringement suit, present the judge with the sealed envelope. The postmark sate is then your copyright date.


Actually this does not work. Any competent lawyer would claim that you mailed yourself an empty envelope then put the poem, song, whatever, into the envelope later. I found this out in a business law class I took several years ago.