Anonymous copyright...???

[Sarastro]

It just struck me that it seems pretty difficult for somebody anonymous to maintain copyrights to anything...

Isn't this a problem on this site?? Is an email address enough for that address' owner to retain copyright to original material posted in their name?

~Sarastro

 

[KillerMuffin]

You own copyright the minute you write something. It's not difficult to maintain copyright here at all. It's as if you're using a pen-name.

If you steal someone's story and post it here, the site owners will remove it as soon as the theft is discovered.

If someone else steals your work and put it up on their site, Lit will put legal pressure on them to protect your copyright if necessary.

It's quite simple, actually. Everything Lit posts is dated. As long as your work is posted before anyone else's version of your work that's generally sufficient to prove you had it first without revealing anonymity.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

I have had stories stolen twice and both times, the situation was dealt with quickly without my having to reveal anything.

 

[Guest]

Yes.

Same situation for me. I used my pen name yahoo address to talk to the site owners and then left matters in Laurel's capable hands.

Situation(s) resolved.

 

[Sarastro]

You own copyright the minute you write something. It's not difficult to maintain copyright here at all. It's as if you're using a pen-name.

It's quite simple, actually. Everything Lit posts is dated. As long as your work is posted before anyone else's version of your work that's generally sufficient to prove you had it first without revealing anonymity.

Yes, but it still seems kinda flimsy to me... Not that I'm complaining, mind you; I'm just curious about the exact rules. The email address and the password are the sole guarantees the anonymous author here has. Is that really enough? If the email address is also anonymous, what's to stop anybody from stepping forward and claiming that they are the real person behind this or that pseudonym? Again, I'm not complaining or anything; it just seems to me that there might be problems taking care of our interests in case there were some copyright dispute of the more serious kind.

What if the password is forgotten and the email address changed? In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Lit contributors - esp. some of those who signed up several years ago - have already dropped under the radar and can never be contacted again.

But of course, those are the conditions we've accepted working under, and I have no problem with that. When it comes to my own work, I'm not that squeamish about legal matters of this kind. I would find it kind of flattering if somebody liked my stories enough to steal them - after all, doesn't one want as many people as possible to read them? Or maybe that's just me!

Just rambling,
~Sarastro

 

[Madame Manga]

Since I've just done a little reading up on copyright legalities, I actually have a solid answer to this.

http://www.copyright.gov/

"For an anonymous work, a pseudonymous work, or a work made for hire, the copyright endures for a term of 95 years from the year of its first publication or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first."

Of course, if writers don't defend their copyrights by coming forward when their work is stolen, it's not likely that anything will be done. What I have used to establish my identity in cases of dispute is my longtime AOL email address; that's as good a proof of authorship as any in terms of pseudonymous online erotica.

MM

 

[Weird Harold]

If the email address is also anonymous, what's to stop anybody from stepping forward and claiming that they are the real person behind this or that pseudonym? Again, I'm not complaining or anything; it just seems to me that there might be problems taking care of our interests in case there were some copyright dispute of the more serious kind.

I keep a copy of all my stories in MS Word format and keep a list of submission dates and locations in the file. I'm confident that I can give a detailed enough history of each story to prove I'm the author -- usually without sacrificing anonymity.

I'm not terribly concerned about sacrificing anonymity, though. I don't use an anonymous e-mail address and I only have one story that is likely to generate a "serious" copyright case -- theone included in the Literotica Antholgy -- and expect the publisher will deal with anything that comes up about that one.