By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:13:14 +0000

Dwight, thanks for your comments! Although the mailing trick doesn't have much weight, it is something that a cautious (if perhaps inexperienced) writer can do rather than paying for full copyright protection.
You're totally right, though. An author's best protection are the drafts of their own work.

By: DwightWannabe

DwightWannabe — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:48:25 +0000

[Pounding my head against the desk]
Respectfully, Ms. Unfeasible, the old mailing trick has no legal weight.
And it's unnecessary.
PEOPLE!
Your work is copyrighted the moment the ink hits the page.
Your work is copyrighted the moment the paint smooshes into the canvas.
Your work is copyrighted the moment the magnetic head changes the polarity of the bit.
The darned copyright symbol doesn't even have any legal merit. It's just a meme, albeit one that isn't going away anytime soon.
The words "All Rights Reserved" don't have any legal merit except in two Central American countries with a GNP so low that no one besides the dictator in charge could afford to buy your book anyway.
The Berne convention of 1988 dramatically simplified the concept of copyright around the entire civilized world.
Your wife’s words were copyrighted the moment the ink hit the page. You don't need Big Brother's blessing. You don't need parlor tricks.
People are SO worried that somebody is going to get over on them and steal their creative baby. Dude, SERIOUSLY, publishing a novel is such a moonshot that an agent stealing your ms and publishing it as their own is probably THE BEST thing that could happen to you.
Assuming you showed your late wife's work to more than two people before you started mailing it out (And God knows you should workshop it through at least ten) you're likely to end up with a lot more $ than a measly five grand you'd probably never earn-out on a first book.
Relax.
And good luck, brother.

Comments on: Ask Daphne! About copyright protection

By: Kate

By: DwightWannabe