On Sunday 28 September 2008 02:12, Ganador wrote:
> there are many many furry artists who write "copyright foxboy" or
> something related, on their art peices, but they do not realize, that this
> does not mean their artwork is copywritten. it is not, and the federal
> bureau of investigation does not recognize that in a court of law.
> and since 1978, they no longer recognize mailing a copy of your work to
> yourself with a government recognized postal stamp on it, to keep safe and
> only open in court when the creator of copys of that art come into
> question.
Don't make yourself out to be an expert on copyright and then go on to make a
basic mistake like this. The US became a Berne Convention nation over _TWO
DECADES_ ago, basing an argument on the old UCC rules just shows that you
don't know what you are talking about.
Here is what you need to do in order to copyright something: Either put it in
a fixed form or perform it. That's it, _nothing_ else. You don't even need
to sign it, much less put a copyright notice or take other special actions.
Now it is true that the "poor man's copyright" is useless, but that is because
it doesn't actually prove anything, (it's easy to send yourself an unsealed
envelope).
(BTW: Don't hold your breath on using copyright to protect your characters,
Berne doesn't recognize character copyright and the US rules on it are so
strict that no character has ever been found to meet them. However, if you
are selling works including the characters, you may have trademark
protection.)
--
Chakat Firepaw - Inventor & Scientist (Mad)
Received on Sun Sep 28 2008 - 12:04:41 CDT