Proof of authorship via email?

ProbeX

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ProbeX
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Hope I'm posting this in the right forum (it was this, or the 'Education' forum):

Question regarding "poor man's copyright":

if you don't have a lot of money to immediately file for an official copyright via the copyright office, is emailing your materials to yourself or a trusted party a decent substitute for the old "poor man's copyright" method of snail-mailing the documents to yourself, as proof of authorship? Obviously, the date and time are recorded in the email heading. I would of course place "Copyright 2010 [My Name]" at the end of each piece of work. Would that suffice as far as you know? Thank you.
 
I would still send it the old fashioned way too just to be sure.
 
You mean so I have a hard copy? Okay, but what if I simply print out the email, keeping a hard copy of that instead? A snailmail copy can only be opened once, is my understanding, whereas an email can be referred to time and time again, as it has the date and time printed right on it (as proof of when the thing was created). ?
 
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IANAL but any evidence at all pre-dating the unauthorized copy would be useful to the judge. However e-mail date/time/author is trivial to spoof so not really good evidence for proving anything. In tandem with other evidences could be helpful in swaying the judge. Snail mail would definitely be preferable as the post office's stamp is much harder to spoof and therefore much more convincing to the judge.
 
ProbeX said:
You mean so I have a hard copy? Okay, but what if I simply print out the email, keeping a hard copy of that instead?
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It's not the hard copy you want, as you could print that at any time. It's the post office's stamp (which would be dated) that you're after. Leave the copy sealed in the envelope so the judge can open it himself.
 
I'd also like to note though that even the Poor Man's copyright can be spoofed without too much effort. If the guy who stole your work mails himself an empty unsealed envelope a year before you mailed yours, he can simply put your work in his envelope, seal it, and present it to the judge. Now the judge has two sealed envelopes with the work in question, and his predates yours by a year.
This is why the poor man's copyright is "poor" it can sway a judge's opinion ruling on the preponderance of evidence, but it's not "proof" of anything.

Also adding "Copyright 2010 [your name]" is irrelevant. Whosoever's copy is demonstrated in the judge's opinion to predate the other's owns the copyright. Notices are irrelevant, unless you specifically release the content to the public domain, it is assumed to be copyrighted to the creator. © notices are mostly a deterrent to "scare" people who might copy - they haven't had any legal relevance for decades.
It could be useful if the other guy is so foolish and absent minded to leave the notice in his copy, though. As it would demonstrate to the judge he just blindly copied your work.

Filing with the US copyrighter's office gives you reliable evidence as the judge will accept their records as reliable.

ETA: Having a hard copy dated and signed by a notary or lawyer can also be swaying evidence, but might cost as much as having it officially registered anyway.

Your work has all the rights it will ever have as soon as you put paper to pen - it's convincing a judge of the date that's at issue. An exception being I think filing with the US copyright office gives you the right to sue for attorney's fees as well as damages.
IANAL.
 
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Mailing documents to yourself (either by email or "snail" mail") has no legal standing whatsoever. You don't have to register it, but if you feel it necessary to protect yourself, it only costs $35 to register online.

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html
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 5 years of publication, it is considered prima facie evidence in a court of law. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section “Copyright Registration” and Circular 38b, Highlights of Copyright Amendments Contained in the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), on non-U.S. works.

I’ve heard about a “poor man’s copyright.” What is it?The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.
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ETA: Instead of mailing it to yourself, why not have a few witnesses (anyone, such as friends, family members, or co-workers) sign and date the first few pages? That would have legal standing, and they can be called to testify in court that they actually did see the document in your possession at that time.
 
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Would recruiting a public notary just to sign a couple of pages be so expensive?
That was not my impression...
 
Simon39759 said:
Would recruiting a public notary just to sign a couple of pages be so expensive?
That was not my impression...
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Looking here, it costs around $10 per signature witnessed for notarization, but some banks will notarize documents for their customers for free, so it's a cheap alternative.

But for full protection, he could just spend the $35 bucks to get it properly registered online.
 
35 bucks?
Ok, that's really cheap, much more than an actual patent (my boss and I looked into it a few weeks back and it runs in the ten of thousand)...
 
ProbeX said:
Hope I'm posting this in the right forum (it was this, or the 'Education' forum):

Question regarding "poor man's copyright":

if you don't have a lot of money to immediately file for an official copyright via the copyright office, is emailing your materials to yourself or a trusted party a decent substitute for the old "poor man's copyright" method of snail-mailing the documents to yourself, as proof of authorship? Obviously, the date and time are recorded in the email heading. I would of course place "Copyright 2010 [My Name]" at the end of each piece of work. Would that suffice as far as you know? Thank you.
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The whole "poor man's copyright" is an old wives tale. It's unnecessary, and doesn't work anyhow.
 
Thanks for all your advice and input! I especially like the idea of getting others' signatures on my work and thoughts about a notary public.

Yes, going through the copyright office would be best and that is what I intend to do when I finish my book, but presently someone is interested in several individual stories that will comprise my book. I am completing short pieces every few days and she wants me to email these items to her so she can review them and show them to two famous authors in the field that she claims to know. Presently I'd rather not spend $35 every few days for copyrights, but based on the context of this situation (see below), there may be reasons to try and protect my work as much as possible.

The woman reviewing my work seems sincere, but she voiced frustration re: her own attempts at writing. She told me she tends to mimic the style of other writers (Okay, maybe no big deal). Also, she intends to petition the same distinguished authors to publish her work, as she is claiming will review my own work. I don't want to be unduly paranoid; none of this proves she has nefarious intentions. What would you do?

.
 
Simon39759 said:
35 bucks?
Ok, that's really cheap, much more than an actual patent (my boss and I looked into it a few weeks back and it runs in the ten of thousand)...
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Copyright =/= Patent

Entirely different animals. People tend to get them confused.

Beanbag
 
Copyright law varies from place to place, but another option is putting a copy of the work into a vault. Most lawyers (particularly entertainment lawyers) will provide this service relatively cheaply, and usually writers' guilds and other industry groups will do the same. It's increasingly easy with digital storage because it requires less space from those providing the vault service.

It's worth noting, as already pointed out, that the work is legally protected as soon as you create it. The process of registering, mailing it to yourself, or whatever else you wish to do are nothing more than accumulating evidence that it is indeed your work. Obviously the more robust the evidence, the better your chances of winning.

I would recommend keeping a solid track record of your work as well (for example save every draft separately, do editing on a hard copy and keep those as well), so there's a clear passage of development from draft to draft - that helps to demonstrate that it really is yours. If someone has stolen your work they're only going to have whatever draft they stole.

With regard to your case of emailing examples to someone, and being worried they might steal it, yes email can prove helpful there - not so much in proving you "had the work first". But that's only one half of copyright infringement. There's two basic things you need to prove:

1. Original possession - i.e. you had the work before they did
2. Chain of contact - this means you need to demonstrate a connection between your work and theirs.

The fact is people do simultaneously come up with similar work sometimes, so it's not enough that the work is similar. If you are charging that they stole it off you, you need to demonstrate a direct chain from your work to theirs. If you've got a record of you emailing them a copy of the work, that's obviously a pretty good piece of evidence for Chain of contact. If that email happened before they ever provided any evidence of possessing the work, that's not going to work in their favour.

If you're really serious about protecting your work, make them sign a confidentiality agreement before you send them anything. That's the ultimate evidence of chain of contact.
 
ProbeX said:
The woman reviewing my work seems sincere, but she voiced frustration re: her own attempts at writing. She told me she tends to mimic the style of other writers (Okay, maybe no big deal). Also, she intends to petition the same distinguished authors to publish her work, as she is claiming will review my own work. I don't want to be unduly paranoid; none of this proves she has nefarious intentions. What would you do?
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Addressing this point, personally I tend to avoid showing my work to other writers, particularly if they write the same genre as me. If I were you I wouldn't be sending her anything.

True, it may not be necessary, but if you've spent as long as I have on your work, in my opinion you cannot be unduly paranoid. It's not worth the risk that she has nefarious intentions.
 
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