The Steve Laube Agency » Copyright http://stevelaube.com Helping to Change the World Word by Word Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:00:18 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Checked Your Copyright Lately? http://stevelaube.com/checked-your-copyright-lately/ http://stevelaube.com/checked-your-copyright-lately/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:00:56 +0000 Steve Laube http://www.stevelaube.com/?p=961 Have you checked your copyright lately? I mean, have you actually gone to the US Copyright Office web site and searched for your registration? You might be surprised at what you won't find. Here is the link to start your search. Most publishing contracts have a clause that requires the publisher to register the copyright, in the name of the author, with the US Copyright Office. This is supposed to be done as part of the in-house paperwork process. If you do not find your book, don't panic. Related posts:
  1. Copyright Research
  2. Ten Commandments for Working with Your Agent
]]> Have you checked your copyright lately? I mean, have you actually gone to the US Copyright Office web site and searched for your registration? You might be surprised at what you won’t find. Here is the link to start your search.

Most publishing contracts have a clause that requires the publisher to register the copyright, in the name of the author, with the US Copyright Office. This is supposed to be done as part of the in-house paperwork process.

If you do not find your book, don’t panic.

I repeat.  If you do not find your book title, don’t panic. They copyright law is very specific that your work is still protected by the law. However, having it officially registered guarantees your protection. If someone steals your story, your characters, etc. you have to be able to prove when you wrote it originally. That provenance is the key to your protection of your intellectual property.

If you are a published author and you do not find your work registered, contact your publisher in a very kind fashion and request that they comply with the requirements of your contract on this issue. Some may even have a copy of the certificate of registration on file that they can send you.

Don’t assume, if you can’t find it online, that your publisher failed. It may be that you didn’t do the search correctly (never underestimate the power of user-error). Or maybe the title or your name was misspelled in the registration process. That is why it is important to stay calm and make a reasonable request for help from your publisher. Your agent cannot do this for you since you are the copyright holder, the agent is not.

So, if copyright is automatic upon creation, then why check for your registration? The government’s site has some great answers to that question:

  • Copyright registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim.
  • Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, copyright registration is necessary for works of U.S. origin.
  • If made before or within five years of publication, copyright registration will establish prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated in the certificate.
  • If copyright registration is made within three months after publication of the work or prior to an infringement of the work, statutory damages and attorney’s fees will be available to the copyright owner in court actions. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner.
  • Copyright registration allows the owner of the copyright to record the registration with the U. S. Customs Service for protection against the importation of infringing copies.

In the past I made the mistake of saying that you can just mail yourself a copy of your manuscript (and not open it) to let the postmark be “evidence” of the date of creation. This is also known as “poor man’s copyright.” Unfortunately there is nothing in the law that says this is sufficient. Use their online registration service and pay the $35 fee if you wish to register your material yourself.

Related posts:

  1. Copyright Research
  2. Ten Commandments for Working with Your Agent

]]> http://stevelaube.com/checked-your-copyright-lately/feed/ 0 Copyright Research http://stevelaube.com/copyright-research/ http://stevelaube.com/copyright-research/#comments Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:57:21 +0000 Steve Laube http://www.stevelaube.com/?p=303 Copyright office sealWriters frequently ask about whether they need permission to quote from another book. The answer is usually yes. But if the book is in the public domain that permission is unnecessary. I don't want to tackle the issue of "Fair Use" today, but instead provide a few links that you can use to find out if a book is in the public domain, or not.

First, use this form (http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~lesk/copyrenew.htmll). This form searches the U. S. copyright renewal records database. Any book published during the years 1923-1963 which is found in this file is still under copyright, as are all books published after 1964 (although until 1989 they still had to have proper notice and registration). Books published before 1923, or before Jan. 1, 1964 and not renewed (in the 28th year after publication), are out of copyright and therefore in the public domain. The form only searches books, not music, etc. No related posts.]]> Copyright office sealWriters frequently ask about whether they need permission to quote from another book. The answer is usually yes. But if the book is in the public domain that permission is unnecessary. I don’t want to tackle the issue of “Fair Use” today, but instead provide a few links that you can use to find out if a book is in the public domain, or not.

First, use this form (http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~lesk/copyrenew.htmll).
This form searches the U. S. copyright renewal records database. Any book published during the years 1923-1963 which is found in this file is still under copyright, as are all books published after 1964 (although until 1989 they still had to have proper notice and registration).  Books published before 1923, or before Jan. 1, 1964 and not renewed (in the 28th year after publication), are out of copyright and therefore in the public domain. The form only searches books, not music, etc.

Cornell University has provided a very helpful chart to determine if an existing Work is still covered by copyright, see
http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm

No related posts.

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