copyright infringement

Copyright infringement concerns many creative people, be they writers, musicians, movie makers, or otherwise. A complaint I hear from many beginning writers deals with copyrights and whether publishers will steal their stories. Having a rudimentary understanding of the law will put your mind at rest.

An idea is not copyright protected. According to attorney Tonya Marie Evans and author of Literary Law Guide for Authors, your idea submitted in a book proposal or screenplay pitch “may be protectable under state law.” Once you put your idea into a tangible form, i.e. a manuscript, your work is protected.

Whether or not your work carries the copyright notice (© symbol, year, name), it is protected under the law. However, displaying the notice negates at least one legal argument: “I didn’t know it was copyrighted,” aka innocent infringement.

You cannot file a copyright infringement suit unless your work has been registered with the Copyright Office. In other words, you can’t sue someone for using your material if it isn’t registered. For bloggers this does present a problem, but not an impossibility. Your blog content can be registered.

Registration within 3 months after publication has its benefits, both legally and financially. I registered my book Help! My Husband Has Sexually Abused Our Daughter as soon as I had the galley proof from my POD publisher. Information on copyright.gov is extensive and can answer many of your questions. 

For further reading:

• Lorelle on WordPress, http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/
• Copyright Office: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-infringement.html
• Photographers: http://asmp.org/tutorials/enforcing-your-rights.html#.UZsjp7WG2Io