Literature forum wanted!

Vangelis

Does anybody know of a literature forum where your own productions are protected by copy rights and that has protected access?

Dades

AFAIK once you "print" a piece of writing on paper or on screen it automatically receives some level of copyright protection. I would imagine the only result of displaying it on a protected board would be to limit the amount of people who can read what you've written - which kind of defeats the purpose.

Anyway unless you are trying to sell the writing it doesn't matter - and if you are you should only be sending it to publishers of such material.

Theft of unpublished novels is unheard of. It's different with say, feature screenwriting, as very often it's the premise that is the target. Therefore they have a writers guild to protect script ideas as well as the writing.

Vangelis

I'm afraid that people will steal my creations. I have not published anything yet, but want to. I'd just like to have somewhere where I could post my works without being afraid that someone will steal it from me. Of course, there is never a guarantee, but...

Do you know anywhere else than this forum, Atheist?

John

You could always copyright it first before posting it up. The law in Ireland is that you send a sealed copy of it by registered post to yourself and don't open it. That way you have a sealed and dated copy of your work to prove when you created it.

Dades

Vangelis wrote:

I'm afraid that people will steal my creations. I have not published anything yet, but want to. I'd just like to have somewhere where I could post my works without being afraid that someone will steal it from me. Of course, there is never a guarantee, but...

You're kind of asking the impossible - you want somewhere to post your writing where nobody can steal it - the only place for that is where no-one can see it.

Every writer goes through the same concerns over their work. The reality is that nobody is going to steal it. What would they do with it anyway? Let go and post it on relevant public boards for feedback. (I have to assume it's short stories, essays, or poetry - if you had written a book you should be sending it to publishing houses etc.)

Where to post depends on the content/genre of the work is all I can say. There are forums for every type of writer to be found. I've written a few feature screenplays and there are incredible resources for scriptwriters on the net. I suppose you might get some feedback from the "creative writing" section here, though I wouldn't bank on it.

John2 wrote:

You could always copyright it first before posting it up. The law in Ireland is that you send a sealed copy of it by registered post to yourself and don't open it. That way you have a sealed and dated copy of your work to prove when you created it.

Yeah I did that with a completed script a couple of years back. One month later I found an unopened envelope addressed to me while moving house and opened it... :rolleyes:

simu

Do you know about the boards creative writing forum?

Complete with sticky about copyright issues!

Night_Rocker

Which forum is best to post your writing and get criticism and such?

Vangelis

I wouldn't trust the Creative Writing forum.
I need some place where only members can read the posts.

simu

http://www.fictionpress.com/ ?

/edit

But I don't know if you can hide things from the general public there. Tbh, I don't see why you'd trust people who have paid a small membership fee more than random surfers.

Vangelis

Neither do I.
That page might work.

Talliesin

John2 wrote:

You could always copyright it first before posting it up. The law in Ireland is that you send a sealed copy of it by registered post to yourself and don't open it. That way you have a sealed and dated copy of your work to prove when you created it.

The law in Ireland is that the moment someone has created something for themselves, or as part of a commissioned job (e.g. in a consultant or freelance role) they automatically own copyright. If you create something for an employer then the employer automatically owns copyright. Copyright can be assigned to someone else by written agreement either afterwards or before it is written (a freelance writer, a consultant programmer or designer etc. could have agreed to do some work for a client and agreed that the client would own copyright).

The stuff with the sealed copy is not a legal requirement, it is however a means to prove that you had a copy of it before someone else did, and by implication that you were the author and hence have copyright. Anything else that proved the same thing would do as well (with a painting a photograph of it next to a dated newspaper would do the trick).