Copyright in my "name"

[masterandmargarita]

I have a crazy question about copyrights. As a Lit author my work seems relatively protected, but the key word there is "my". Nobody knows my real name. My email is an alias to protect my privacy, as I'm sure many of yours are. So, my question is, would it be smart associate an email address with my real name to the Lit website in order to have a claim on my stories, should I ever need to?

 

[sr71plt]

Your only real protection (you identify yourself as being in the United States) is to formally register your work under your true name. You could do it under a pen name, but you'd have to have that connected with your true name somehow if you went to court (and registration is open to public scrutiny). It would have to trace legally back to your true name. Registration online is $35 (with instructions on the copyright Web site, www.copyright.gov). You can put a bunch of stories (or even books) together as a series under one copyright registration.

You can't go to court in the United States with a copyright violation claim unless you hold a formal copyright. Literotica is in no way connected with that.

From the copyright office's FAQS:

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.”
(bolding added)

 

[TamLin01]

You can't go to court in the United States with a copyright violation claim unless you hold a formal copyright.

That's is actually not true. But it is exponentially easier to prove your copyright if you bothered to register it--that's the whole point, after all.

 

[oggbashan]

That's is actually not true. But it is exponentially easier to prove your copyright if you bothered to register it--that's the whole point, after all.

It would be very difficult and mindbogglingly expensive to prove copyright through the US courts without a registration it. It might be possible, if you have a spare half-million dollars.

Even if you have registered your copyright, pursuing those who have stolen your work would also be very expensive. If you have posted your stories anywhere on the internet, they could be stolen through countries that have no copyright laws at all.

 

[RoyceConnors]

In the States, if you wish to write under another name than your real one, you have to go to your local court and fill out a DBA form (Doing Business As). Once it is notarized and filed, anything you do under that name can be legally copyrighted under it and it will hold up in any court of law. I recently just filled out all the necessary forms to write and submit under another pen name.

 

[StrangeLife]

It would be very difficult and mindbogglingly expensive to prove copyright through the US courts without a registration it. It might be possible, if you have a spare half-million dollars.

Actually I think it is totally impossible.

The US did sign the Berner convention and is thus obliged to grant any artist an automatic copyright when the work is published, just like in the EU. But the US has made an exception to the convention - it requires a formal registration in order to accept a defence before a court of law. So American artists are in the funny situation that they are granted an automatic - but unenforceable and thus worthless - copyright.

 

[oggbashan]

Actually I think it is totally impossible.

The US did sign the Berner convention and is thus obliged to grant any artist an automatic copyright when the work is published, just like in the EU. But the US has made an exception to the convention - it requires a formal registration in order to accept a defence before a court of law. So American artists are in the funny situation that they are granted an automatic - but unenforceable and thus worthless - copyright.

That is why I suggested half-a-million dollars. You would be trying to change the legal status of copyright in the US.

Even with a registration, actually enforcing it in the US would be expensive. Outside the US, in many countries you would be wasting your money because you could not win such a case e.g. in China

 

[StrangeLife]

That is why I suggested half-a-million dollars. You would be trying to change the legal status of copyright in the US.

Good point. Buying a congressman or two might be the way to go...

 

[sr71plt]

That's is actually not true. But it is exponentially easier to prove your copyright if you bothered to register it--that's the whole point, after all.

What part of what I quoted (and bolded) from the official copyright Web site didn't you understand?

As noted by another poster, the United States finally did sign the Berne Convention but purposely gutted its effect in the United States by not backing it up with legislation. You cannot get a court date without someone having a formal copyright registration in hand. That guts the effect of the Berne Convention "it's yours from inception" clause. And this was not an oversight on the U.S. Government's part.

 

[sr71plt]

Good point. Buying a congressman or two might be the way to go...

Buying a single congressman isn't going to have any effect on purposeful closed court doors to "he said/she said" hazy copyright lawsuits. The congressman might take the money and say he/she would do what they could, of course, while muttering "sucker" under their breath.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Nice try boys, but no.

LEGAL protection with regard to getting a court to adjudicate on 'Copyright damages' is going to depend on who is going to pay them. The idea of any court awarding damages against Copyright implies that there is some financial sum the US government has affixed for its provision of Copyright protection - and there isn't. And that is true of almost all countries not just the US.

It wasn't always so - like it may not have been so two hundred years ago(!) when kings granted Copyright but that concept is long gone everywhere.

The essence of modern Copyright is to do with 'passing off' and false claimants as to authorship rather than a specific value assigned for the breaking of a general protection... In other words, it has to do with the commercial value of your work.

If someone has been making a commercial sum of money by using your exact words and or a unique storyline or something a fair minded person would say is plagiarising your own work then you can definitely take legal actions on several different fronts. But you will find it difficult to make the case regardless of whether you have 'officially registered' or not, because the defense will be that you did not make the actual commercial actions that led to the sales. ROYALTIES, though - now that is an entirely different matter altogether. And it also stands at the back of a long queue of costs of 'making the sales' and there are many cases in which the publishers or the producers and promoters try and often succeed in wheedling out of any royalties whatsoever - even when the thing was a huge commercial success. And in those cases the arguments move on to damages for false trading, misrepresentation and 'passing off.'

'Royalties' is where or rather, probably WHAT the OP is thinking about. And one should note the sense in that word 'royal...' The days of kings granting patronage are over.

A percentage said to be 'entitled' to the ACTUAL author is so friable in the hands of all modern commercial publishers that you might as well forget about it as being anything more than a figment in the minds of IRS dodging practitioners who are expert at manipulating poor dumb 'authors.'

The great example case is of course that of my own father's cousin Kelvin McClory and his claim to having been the actual author of 'Thunderball' - which he was and which was comprehensively found more or less just before he eventually died and then shortly (strangely enough) thereafter!

And in that case you can see what the real meaning of authorship and Copyright actually is. McClory towards the end, was able to make some claims to having been the author, was able to make some claims against the earnings of the movie 'Thunderball' and I don't think he was even then able to get anything from that BUT he was allowed to make a competing movie (Never Say Never Again) and was therefore also FORCED to find his own entirely new set of production funds even to do that!!

All that Copyright now means is that you may assert your 'right' to claim that you are the actual 'inventor' or 'creator' of the story. And you can do that without officially registering by having a date attached somewhere to the first public appearance of the story and having an independently verifiable lodgement of that date attached to the story - such as a certified unopened mailed envelope sent to yourself or to your attorney or accountant or other reliable witness - but this is all a long hop and a twisted way of doing things. When you are accepted by a publisher or commercial producer as the actual author, THEN they may assign some percentage of royalties to you WHEN they take actions to make your work commercial (in other words earn moneys from sales in one form or another). You're NOT going to get an advance! Mostly not.

Another famous case in which this idea of who gets to make money from unique works is the movie 'Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.' And you can read up about that easily via the web.

My advice is that all authors come to terms with the idea that they must work with whoever they find to commercialise their work, rather than go along in this mystical belief in the money-making value of 'Copyright.' There isn't any. What there is that flows from 'Copyright' is official authenticity. And this may have some commercial value but not very much in most cases, and certainly not enough to talk about getting legal actions up to get money from damages or claims against flows of money other people make from sales of your work. Other people don't make money from sales of your work. Thinking that they do is the same as any other type of conspiracy theory!!!

If they get CLOSE to being able to make money from your work believe me you will be doing all the registrations so fast because you will easily be able to monetize your position. That is the hardest thing to get people to realise - believe me though, if you really have something of major commercial value you will be able to get enough money to do things reasonably 'right.'

And if you worry about writing only modestly - that is, as something like a hobby or for what you believe will be a small amount of cash on the side - just forget about it. There is no protection that the Law will give you. The Law - the modern Law - only gives a damn about things with huge and meaningful sums involved, because the Law exists only for lawyers to have a good living, and that therefore includes judges too, and politicians and the IRS. And not you.

Not you ever. Remember that.

I just wanted you to know that. Have a nice day. (Just kidding, I love all authors but I feel sorry for most of them too. The modern world is not for you even though it needs you more than ever before.)

 

[sr71plt]

Wonder what part of what I posted from the official copyright page you don't understand either.

It's really quite simple. You don't get a court date without a formal copyright registration in your hand in the United States. And if you can't get a court date everything else is bluff (which does work sometimes).

You can lead a horse to water on this copyright business, but . . .

 

[colddiesel]

Is this the 47th time I have seen this thread?

 

[sr71plt]

Is this the 47th time I have seen this thread?

Yep.

And yet, some folks just refuse to "get it."

 

[lovecraft68]

Oh, look, Lits dinosaurs posting back to back. How exciting, I should call National Geographic.

This question does get asked a lot, by different people all the time so forgive them their lack of psychic abilities to know that.

Course Pilot, you could stop snarking and maybe put all your alleged knowledge to good use and start a thread explaining it and bump it once in awhile for the newbs.

You know, seeing you're always telling everyone how helpful you are.

Maybe you could even talk about how you, yourself helped write the current copyright laws themselves as you claimed to once before in the editing forum'

Except this time prove it.

 

[sr71plt]

It's not the question being asked that's irritating. It's the inability of some giving responses to accept reality.

And you quite obviously are at the height of hypcrisy to finger me for being snarky, LC. I knew you couldn't hold off for very long.

Gotten tired of chewing on Laurel?

 

[masterandmargarita]

Thanks for the lively responses. So, what's my next move? I have lit stories under a name that can't be traced back to me and I'm going to continue to write. My loftiest goal would be to potentially repackage them for an eBook. Do I need to do anything different than what I'm doing, or do I continue to publish work on lit under the alias?

 

[sr71plt]

Thanks for the lively responses. So, what's my next move? I have lit stories under a name that can't be traced back to me and I'm going to continue to write. My loftiest goal would be to potentially repackage them for an eBook. Do I need to do anything different than what I'm doing, or do I continue to publish work on lit under the alias?

You can certainly repackage them for e-books. Everything I have posted to Lit. also lives in an e-book somewhere--although now I put them in an e-book collection months before posting them here. If you e-book them yourself and no waves are made about them also being here, they can reside in both places. Many publishers would force you to delete them here before putting them out in an e-book, if you go with a publisher. I'm with publishers that don't have that requirement.