How does one copyright an ongoing web comic?

[davidm]

I’m assuming that you don’t need to register each day’s strip seperately.

[OldGuy]

You don’t need to register anything for it to be copyrighted. You do need to register it for some additional rights. I do know that some syndicates used to send bound (perhaps only stapled or perhaps loose) sheets of copies made from proofs for print comic strips in newspapers to copyright a month or so at a time. I presume something similar could be done, but IANAL.

[DavidwithanR]

When you publish something, you own the copyright automatically. There is nothing you need to do. In fact if you want to get rid of your copyright and place your work squarely into the public domain, it is quite difficult to accomplish and involves “red tape”.

[davidm]

@OldGuy

You don’t need to register anything for it to be copyrighted. You do need to register it for some additional rights. I do know that some syndicates used to send bound (perhaps only stapled or perhaps loose) sheets of copies made from proofs for print comic strips in newspapers to copyright a month or so at a time. I presume something similar could be done, but IANAL.

My understanding is that the automatic copyright can be nearly useless in an infringement case.

My friend would like to avoid weekly or monthly copyright fees but that may be what he has to do.

[Lucas_Jackson]

Link?

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@davidm

My understanding is that the automatic copyright can be nearly useless in an infringement case.

My friend would like to avoid weekly or monthly copyright fees but that may be what he has to do.

Registration can be done four times a year and can include any number of items within that quarter. Go the copyright registration site at copyright.gov and there will be instructions and forms to upload the webpages through the Electronic Copyright Office (eCO).

[davidm]

@Lucas_Jackson

Link?

To what? There’s no site yet.

[friedo]

@Exapno_Mapcase

Registration can be done four times a year and can include any number of items within that quarter. Go the copyright registration site at copyright.gov and there will be instructions and forms to upload the webpages through the Electronic Copyright Office (eCO).

This is the correct answer. Register all the strips for each quarter in bulk. You may also want to explore trademark protection for your characters and the title of the comic, if applicable.

[davidm]

To be clear, I am not the artist, but I’ve been asked to handle the technical details of putting the strips on the web and hopefully monetizing them.

[CookingWithGas]

@DavidwithanR

When you publish something, you own the copyright automatically. There is nothing you need to do.

True but Legalzoom notes

4. If registration is made within 3 months of publication of the work or at any time prior to an infringement of the work, the copyright owner is entitled to seek statutory damages and attorney’s fees in federal court. Without registration, only an award of actual damages and profits will be available, and these can be quite difficult to prove.

[nightshadea]

Look up here…it’s for webcomics https://www.projectwonderful.com
it’s also a great way for people to find your webcomic also

[davidm]

@nightshadea

Look up here…it’s for webcomics https://www.projectwonderful.com
it’s also a great way for people to find your webcomic also

Thanks. It’s not totally clear to me what they do. They mention hosting. Do they provide hosting for the comics or just the ads?

[BigT]

My understanding is that it’s not just the strips that are copyrightable, but also characters. As such, wouldn’t that give you protection beyond a need to protect every strip? I mean, even fan art and fanfic are copyvios, just ones that owners tend to allow.

And, yeah, there are comic hosting sites that do a lot of the hard work. Just make sure they don’t make you turn over any rights to them.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@BigT

My understanding is that it’s not just the strips that are copyrightable, but also characters.

Can you name a comic strip character that is copyrighted outside of or in addition to the general copyright of the strip?

Or did you mean trademark?

[davidm]

I would think that characters would fall under trademark laws rather than copyright. Of course, I am not a lawyer.

[gnoitall]

@davidm

I would think that characters would fall under trademark laws rather than copyright. Of course, I am not a lawyer.

Wikipedia isn’t either, but it has this.

@Wikipedia

Recognition of fictional characters as works eligible for copyright protection has come about with the understanding that characters can be separated from the original works they were embodied in and acquire a new life by featuring in subsequent works.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

I’m not saying that some examples of copyrighted character traits don’t exist. Sherlock Holmes is one.

I’m saying that I’ve never heard of one from a comic strip or a webcomic. If you disagree, give me an example because I’d like to study it.

[CookingWithGas]

@BigT

My understanding is that it’s not just the strips that are copyrightable, but also characters. As such, wouldn’t that give you protection beyond a need to protect every strip? I mean, even fan art and fanfic are copyvios, just ones that owners tend to allow.

If you don’t register the copyright your strips, I could redraw the same dialog with my own characters and you would have limited protection against that infringement.

Also, the US Copyright Office says in Circular 44 (small PDF)

Thus a drawing, picture, depiction, or written description of a
character can be registered for copyright. Protection does not, however, extend
to the title or general theme for a cartoon or comic strip, the general idea or
name for characters depicted, or their intangible attributes.

So you can copyright a drawing of Calvin but you can’t copyright the idea of a boy named Calvin who lives in a fantasy world when no grown-ups are around.

[DavidwithanR]

To all who responded to my true-but-very-misguided comment, thanks for explaining how the situation really works.

Copyright sure is weird.

[BigT]

@Exapno_Mapcase

Can you name a comic strip character that is copyrighted outside of or in addition to the general copyright of the strip?

Or did you mean trademark?

I do not actually know how to check the actual records. What I am aware of are people getting DMCAs for fan art. And the DMCA does not apply to trademarks. Also, you can get around trademark by not making the images part of the trade dress of the work, and making clearly visible statements that the work is not made by officials.

It is possible they were using the derivative works rule instead, but the existence of character copyrights would lead me to believe that the characters themselves are copyrighted. And, if you’re big, why wouldn’t you register that copyright?

So I didn’t mean trademark. But it is possible that there aren’t any comic strips that copyright their characters. I don’t know of a way to check. It just seems unlikely to me.

That said, I did not consider the issue with lifted dialog. Most comics I read, lifting the dialog would destroy the original work anyways, so it didn’t occur to me. But I can now think of many I’ve seen floating around where the dialog could be lifted.

Though I’m not sure how useful it is to be able to seek damages for most comic creators, due to the legal fees involved. A DMCA is generally cheap, and can be used without registration.