Skip to Content
 

Question about Copyrights

12 replies [Last post]
dete
Offline
Joined: 12/31/1969

I remember reading somewhere on here about
copyrights, when someone suggested
that you mail the product to yourself so that
the post office will stamp date your product
and remember, do not open it.
I've heard this before, and my friend told me
that anything you right is automatically copyrighted
when you sell the 1st product.

I was wondering if I could just save a screen shot
of my stuff since rules and all that is digital.
And that way it will have a date on it.
Would this work instead of the mailing to one's self?

-thanx in advance for any comments and suggestions.
I'm sure I'm not the only one in these shoes.

seo
seo's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/21/2008
Question about Copyrights

A screen capture won't work, because you can change the date/time on your computer at will, so I could have a screenshot of this message in a file dated in 1980. That wouldn't proof that I wrote it in 1980, would it? ;-)

So dates on files are of no use. Same with emails, unless the mesages can be traced on the mail servers log files. But just having a file with a certain date doesn't prove anything.

Seo

dete
Offline
Joined: 12/31/1969
Question about Copyrights

ahhh makes sense,

thanx for the quick reply!

darn it!

FastLearner
Offline
Joined: 12/31/1969
Question about Copyrights

Except in cases where you're under contract or in a work-for-hire situation, everything you create that is copyrightable is copyright the instant you create it. You don't have to wait to publish it.

Proving it, of course, is another matter.

jpfed
Offline
Joined: 12/31/1969
Question about Copyrights

Let me begin by saying that I am not a lawyer.

Afaik, in the U.S., everything you create, published or not, sold or not, is copyrighted automatically. Because they keep extending the lengths of copyrights, something created now will probably never enter the public domain again.

Practical caveats:

1) To actively defend your copyright, you should have evidence of the date of creation, like mailing a copy of the material to yourself.

2) What a copyright covers is limited. Copyrights are not extended to ideas; they are extended to representations (the words or symbols chosen to represent the ideas). A verbatim copy of copyrighted material- or a version that keeps significant, distinctive phrases intact- can be successfully attacked in the courts. Something that represents the ideas underlying copyrighted material, while using its own distinctive phrasing, cannot.

3) To protect your ideas themselves, independent of representation, get a patent or a trademark. These each have their own issues.

Patents: You have to actively go about patenting your work, as opposed to the passive copyright process. It's harder to do; you need to show that what you're doing hasn't been done before. There are also fees involved. Your patent lives for a finite amount of time- and the legislature is not continuously extending this amount of time, either.

Trademarks: This could theoretically protect the ideas in your game, in extreme circumstances. Trademarks are essentially legal protection for brand identity. If there is an aspect of your company's image that is very well known and firmly associated with only your company, then other companies aren't allowed to show or sell even non-identical variants on this aspect of your image. For example, the IBM logo is so well known that you couldn't call your company GBM and have a logo in the same style. The courts could say that you are confusing the customer and taking advantage of public goodwill towards IBM. Likewise, it's conceivable that a game could be so well-known and so associated with a particular company that slight variations on the game could be considered violations of trademark.

FastLearner
Offline
Joined: 12/31/1969
Question about Copyrights

Sorry, to clarify what I meant, except under the contract or work-for-hire situation, everything you create is copyrighted by you the instant you create it. In some circumstances the thingsd you create will instead be copyrighted by your employer, or someone you're otherwise under contract to. Either way the copyright is automatic, at least here in the US.

Registering the copyright, however, affords you additional protections. Click the "Search" link at the top of this page and enter "copyright" for a lot of good discussion about this topic. As you can imagine, it has come up again and again.

Anonymous
Question about Copyrights

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and I do not charge $200 an hour for dispensing my opinions...

I would imagine that electronic files are protected in the same manner as other media. The files in and of themselves are not inherently proof of anything, as mentioned before. It's like writing a date on a piece of paper and then asserting that the date is there, therefore you must have created the document on that date.

To prove the date that a file was craeted, you would have to either apply for a copyright (depositing a copy with the Copyright Office) or mail a disc to yourself (or some other method of registering your file so that it is on record as having existed on a specific date).

FastLearner
Offline
Joined: 12/31/1969
Question about Copyrights

I have heard from several sources that "postmark copyrights" don't tend to stand up that well in court, and in any case, don't provide the extra protection of filing your copyright (see other threads about the extra protection, which changes what you can sue for if your copyright is violated).

dete
Offline
Joined: 12/31/1969
Question about Copyrights

Seo
Fastlearner
jpfed
siskNY

Thank you for the replies!!

with each reply I think I understand more clearly.

My MAIN concern with copyrighting is NOT to
keep my product for myself and sue anything
that resembles it.

Less selfish, the only reason why I feel like I need
to is because I don't want someone else to say to me
hey you ripped off my idea (which I did NOT.)
and somehow prevent me from distributing my
own product!!!!
Not to attack, just to defend. Just so they won't
take away my baby :)

or at least make it harder for them cause there are some
meanies out there!!!

Anonymous
Question about Copyrights

You may want to check out this link: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html

It has lots of info on copyright for laymen and comes straight from the government's copyright office.

The info advises that, while not necessary, it may be a good idea to mark your items with a copyright on the bottom in the following format: copyright mark (c in a circle - can't make the symbol here) followed by the year and the name of the owner. If nothing else, it may prove to be a deterrent to someone.

Also, I checked that to register your copyright (which gives you legal recourse to sue or enjoin someone from using your work) is extremely simple and costs $30. If it's something REALLY important to your game, maybe it's worth the $30???

My 2 cents,
Lisa

phpbbadmin
Offline
Joined: 04/23/2013
Question about Copyrights

LJF1958 wrote:
You may want to check out this link: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html

It has lots of info on copyright for laymen and comes straight from the government's copyright office.

The info advises that, while not necessary, it may be a good idea to mark your items with a copyright on the bottom in the following format: copyright mark (c in a circle - can't make the symbol here) followed by the year and the name of the owner. If nothing else, it may prove to be a deterrent to someone.

Also, I checked that to register your copyright (which gives you legal recourse to sue or enjoin someone from using your work) is extremely simple and costs $30. If it's something REALLY important to your game, maybe it's worth the $30???

My 2 cents,
Lisa

Fodder for Wikis

FastLearner
Offline
Joined: 12/31/1969
Question about Copyrights

And forget not the super-handy FL-108, about copyrighting games:

http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.pdf

dete
Offline
Joined: 12/31/1969
Question about Copyrights

thanx again everyone,

I feel much more confident now
about the subject matter.

Syndicate content


forum | by Dr. Radut