How can you protect an unpublished creative work?
Copyright laws alone are pretty flimsy - how can an unpublished novel be protected from theft. Is there anyway of warning the creative industry and having some kind of voluntary Moral code about idea theft?
Answers:
It's $35 to register something for copyright, why not just go do it?
EDIT
The poor man's copyright has never ever worked legally. It is too easy to fake.
There's always the poor mans method. Put the original copy in a envelope, seal it and send it registered from your home to someone Else's address. When you get it, then keep it sealed and store it in a safety deposit box or someplace else safe. Do that before anybody reads it except for an attorney or at least get it notarized. Sometimes that will work, how can it be phony if it's been reviewed legally? Once you send it to D.C., it gets stamped copyright that day, but you may not get the paperwork for months. My kind of work needs to be registered with the writers guild too. Of course I can take your book and turn it into a script and if you read it you wouldn't even know that it was your book! It's all about the ideas man. Keep a log of everybody that reads your work until it's finally published.
I'm not really sure and would recommend you speak to a lawyer to be certain, but I always understood that if you posted it to yourself and then did not open it when you received it, then the sealed envelope with the date it was sent would prove that what is inside is your idea on that date. So, if someone read it, and then copied it, you can prove that it was your idea.
Like I say though, get it checked out properly. You don't want someone stealing your Harry Potter...it's worth the fees in the long run.
Don't show it to anyone.
Publishers will only ask for a sample before locking you in for the rights.
g-day!
If you create something whether it be a literary work, musical work or drawing etc. I do know that it belongs to you without being registered. You created it and therefore you are the copyright owner. However, I understand you concerns concerning evidence and feel it is vital that today intellectual property rights are protected.
The best place to give you further details is this website.
http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/...
If gives you the exact procedure for protecting your work.
Good luck!
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