Posting on this forum who owns copywrite

Lexus1976

If i post a short story on this forum, is it true the copyright is owned by Boards.ie

And how realistic would it be for some one else to plagerise the content?

randomchild

Send it to yourself in a registered letter. Proof of copyright right there.

Lexus1976

Thats a myth, would not stand up in court. If you do post on this forum, boards.ie own the copy right. Can somebody confirm if this is correct?

Insect Overlord

There's a stickied thread about copyrights several milimeters above this thread...

brianthebard

berne convention
If you are that worried about copyrighting your work, why post it online at all?

randomchild

Lexus1976 wrote: »

Thats a myth, would not stand up in court. If you do post on this forum, boards.ie own the copy right. Can somebody confirm if this is correct?

From the Copyright Association of Ireland's website:

Depending on the circumstances, it may be difficult for an author to prove that he or she had created a work at a specific point in time. Proof of this fact might be needed in an action for infringement. An author can create such proof by sending a copy of the work to himself or herself by registered post, keeping the post office receipt and leaving the envelope unopened. Another way of creating this type of proof is to deposit the work with an organisation such as the Copyright Protection Agency, which, for a fee, will provide the necessary proof should the need arise.

It stands up in court because the letter is open, thus proving the fact that you created the contents of whatever is inside of the envelope at least on the date of postage. It maintains I believe if it is opened in court and resealed by a judge with a signature. Look here for more info:

http://www.cai.ie/faq/index.htm

rockbeer

I'm not an expert but as far as I know Boards could not legally take ownership of the copyright of original content. They might try to claim it but that wouldn't make it theirs. Even if there was something in the T & Cs (is there?) saying that anything you post on here becomes the property of Boards I think there would be serious questions over whether it would stand up legally.

If I post a chunk of something written by - say - Roddy Doyle here do you think Boards would suddenly own the copyright to that? It's just the same with your own work - as the creator it automatically belongs to you unless/until you explicitly give it away or sell it.

Proving ownership is of course another matter covered above.

Just to clarify... sending your story to yourself in a sealed envolope does not somehow 'give' you copyright in your original material. You own that anyway. It gives you a method of proving when you wrote it, that's all. Anyone claiming the copyright would have to show either that they wrote it before you or that you explicitly gave/sold it to them.

There is however another issue, which is that publishers are sometimes reluctant to take on work that's already been posted online in case of later copyright disputes. I personally would be cautious about posting anything I seriously intended to submit for publication.

As regards plagiarism, you can't copyright an idea so in theory it's easy for anyone to do this. In reality there are probably much more serious things to worry about, like getting good enough that somebody would want to plagiarise you in the first place (no disrespect intended). It's often said that there are only seven or so core ideas for stories anyway, the rest is just window dressing. I'd concentrate on your writing and not worry too much about people stealing it.