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Copyright laws do not protect:
Facts, ideas, systems, names or methods of operation, although they may protect the way these intellectual properties are presented.
When is my work copyright protected?
By law, your work has copyrights the moment "pen hits paper". Once you have created and fixed your work in a tangible form so that it is either directly, or with the aid of a machine or device, perceptible, you own the copyright. This being true, it is also very important that you somehow register your copyright in order to provide proof of your ownership as soon after creation as possible.
Why should I register my copyrights?
Registering your copyrights will provide you with essential time-line evidence in the case that somebody decides to use your material without permission, or if somebody accuses you of using their material.
In any copyright infringement suit, there will be three questions that need to be resolved, and in this order:
i) The two works will be compared to determine if one was derived from the other. Often "experts" are brought in to help determine this.
ii) Did the party accused of copyright infringement have access to the work in question? You can't steal work that you have never seen or heard, so there must be evidence that the work was made available to the party accused of infringement.
iii) Who had it first. This is where you provide meaningful evidence of your first possession of the copyright, which hopefully pre-dates that of your adversary.
How do I register my Copyrights in Canada?
Conventional registration in Canada involves filing an application with the Copyright Office along with a prescribed fee.
(The following is taken directly from various pages of the CIPO Website)
The current filing fee is $50 per electronic application and $65 per manual application. Normally, each song, book, recording, etc., is considered a separate work and requires a separate application and fee. There is no blanket-type registration for several works by one author. However, if you are registering a book of poems, songs, photographs, etc., you may register the book as one work. Also, note that if the work is published in a series of parts such as an encyclopedia, one registration covers all the parts in the series.
An application form and instructions for filling it out are available from the Copyright Office or by visiting the Copyright home page at http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrksv/cipo/cp/cp_main-e.html. The registration process normally takes three weeks. The fee covers review of your application, registration and your official certificate.
Conventional copyright registration by definition, depends on the territory in which you live and the governing copyright laws. In Canada, as in many other countries who conform to international copyright treaties like the Berne convention, the law states:
i) "When you create a work or other subject matter protected by copyright, you will automatically have copyright protection provided that, at the time of creation, you were:..."
ii) "You do not have to register your copyright to have protection in Canada, but when you register with the Copyright Office, you receive a certificate which can be used to your advantage in the event that your work is infringed."
Read more at http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrksv/cipo/cp/copy_gd_regis-e.html#1
These two statements are a little misleading. Sure, by the letter of the law, you own the copyright, but you also bear the burden of proof of that fact. This means that it is up to you to provide any evidence required to demonstrate your ownership of the copyright before you "gave it to the world". Should someone else claim the work as their own, you are the "copyright police".
This is precisely why it is imperative to obtain credible third-party date-stamped evidence of your copyrights as quickly as possible, and ALWAYS before you publish the work anywhere, or to anyone. It is also equally important to document when and to whom you have published the work.
There are numerous means available to the copyright owner to acquire date-stamps for their work. Solutions include government registrations, using notaries, privately held repositories like SAC and the Writers Guild of America, the "Poor man's Copyright", and more recently, various online solutions. Each method should be reviewed and understood before choosing the appropriate registration process.
In summary, your copyrights are valuable, and they could represent a significant source of future revenue for you. You are the only person that can protect them. Before you publish your work, choose a method and REGISTER it!
"Rob Oswin is a singer/songwriter who understands the importance of copyright. He began the World Wide Online Registry Inc. to help
other songwriters protect their work. Visit his site at http://www.WorldWideOCR.com
- Thanks Rob, calgarysongwriter.com team"
Please feel free to re-post this article as long as you leave the credits intact.
This article has been copyright protected and archived with a WorldWideOCR.com SEAL™ File.
Copyright 2008 WorldWideOCR.com
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