If you self-publish, say with Amazon.com or Smashwords, do you first register your work w/US Copyright Office?
Since works are so easily stolen, registration appears to give the writer an extra layer of protection.
From: Copyright in General (FAQ) | U.S. Copyright Office
–When is my work protected?
Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.
–Do I have to register with your office to be protected?
No. In general, registration is voluntary. Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section “Copyright Registration.”
–Why should I register my work if copyright protection is automatic?
Registration is recommended for a number of reasons. Many choose to register their works because they wish to have the facts of their copyright on the public record and have a certificate of registration. **Registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney’s fees in successful litigation. Finally, if registration occurs within five years of publication, it is considered prima facie evidence in a court of law. **
Yes, I do. The way I understand it, while you have “copyright” just by producing the work, being registered gives you traction for taking legal action if your work is stolen. Like your highlighted stuff says.
No, I don’t. You can copyright all you like, but if someone violates it you still have to hire a lawyer to get them to stop and I can’t afford that anyway.
Difference being if it is registered there are statutory penalties. If not you must prove damages. Not sure if you need an attorney to enforce the former.
RikWriter: "No, I don’t. You can copyright all you like, but if someone violates it you still have to hire a lawyer to get them to stop and I can’t afford that anyway."
Saint Cad: "Difference being if it is registered there are statutory penalties. If not you must prove damages. Not sure if you need an attorney to enforce the former."
Yeah–I don’t understand not registering–why not take advantage of easy+inexpensive legal protection–I often see on writer’s boards the suggestion “don’t worry about it, your work is copyrighted automatically”–as if that alone discourages theft–
People who are going to steal your work will do it whether you’re registered or not. The copyright is there the minute you publish the work. Getting them to stop will still require hiring a lawyer, which I can’t afford to do, and I likely won’t get any money back from it, so why bother? There are just more important things to worry about.
The fallacy in your reasoning is that, at $150,000 per violation, the statutory penalties that are available only if you register can make it worth your while to hire a lawyer. At the very least you’ll have some leverage in negotiating a settlement.
Registering is not that hard or expensive. For most works you can do it online, and the fees re $25-50. In the case of periodicals (the form I’m most familiar with) you have to register within 90 of publication to obtain statutory penalities. I don’t happen to know if it’s the same for other types of works.
Because if you register, the infringers are liable for your legal costs.
I would also think most lawyers would be happy to take the case on contingency: registered copyright holders never lose in court, so there’s a guaranteed payday for the lawyer (even if there’s a settlement, as usually happens).
I registered the first book in my series (though I just realized I haven’t heard anything back from them–should probably check on that). Haven’t registered the second or third ones yet, but I suppose I should get on with that.
That would require them to make some serious money from my stuff, which is unlikely. I’ve made okay money from writing, but not enough to satisfy a lawyer.
To cut down costs, you can register as many works as you like simultaneously for a single fee of $35. Everything can be done online. This is especially helpful for photographers, but I recently registered all the pages on my website, 50+. You are protected as long as you register before the infringement occurs, but it’s better to do so within 90 days.
You’re still not getting it. Your assumption that to succeed in court you or the infringers have to have made a lot of money from the protected material is only true if you didn’t properly register the copyright.
But if you do register properly, you can be awarded $150,000 for every incident of infringement. Depending on the nature of the infringement, that soon amounts to enough to make any lawyer interested, as others have stated.
You can be awarded that, but that doesn’t mean the defendant will have the money to pay it. They most likely won’t unless my work gets stolen by some famous, wealthy author or some big name production company, neither of which is likely. Is a lawyer going to be willing to work for the promise of installment payments from some schlub desperate enough to steal ideas from a self-published author?
Registration is an insurance policy. As with any decision to buy insurance you have to calculate the cost of present known loss, in the form of the premium payments, against the possibility of a much larger but hypothetical future loss.
Nobody can make that calculation for you. Some people inherently like to minimize that risk, others feel that the risk is already at a minimum. There is no one right answer.
It’s true that most writing is not infringed. It’s true that most infringements are annoying but not revenue destroying. It’s true that in copyright, the creator, not some huge insurance company, has to incur costs to seek redress. All of these are good reasons for most people who are not professionals to bother with registration.
The arguments on the other side are that registration is inexpensive, that it provides large amounts of protection, and that any infringement worth pursuing will be against someone likely well able to afford repaying the fees of your lawyer.