Copyright??

[sr71plt]

They even had copies of the forms to print out and send in at one time, but I don't know if they still do or not.

So does the copyright office at the government Web site provided above.

And, surprise, their's would be the most up-to-date.

 

[sr71plt]

The US signed Berne. Berne sets a standard for copyright, 'tangible form', but the copyright office can't prove to that standard.

By the way, the Berne Convention is for copyright issues between countries that have signed it, not inside the countries that signed it. For U.S. copyright provisions, we still go to the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, as amended. The text of this can be found the U.S. copyright office Web site.

 

[snowy ciara]

So does the copyright office at the government Web site provided above.

And, surprise, their's would be the most up-to-date.

Yes, I wasn't specific enough. At one point the AW had down loadable copyright forms from several countries. They also make it a point to keep most of their information fairly up to date. Allthough the Berne Convention tries to protect copyright for all member countries (by making them honor original copyrights in the "home" country) whenever possible; if it's feasible, some people prefer to copyright works in several countries where the work is likely to appear. I know that my agent copyrights me in several countries. Some view this as an unnecessary duplication of effort, but my lawyer says it's a Very Good Idea all the same.


ETA: Here's the link to the canadian copyright people, for those who may need it: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrksv/cipo/cp/cp_main-e.html

 

[BACarter]

Thanks to one and all. Great information, great resources.

 

[starrkers]

Vague ponder: wonder what the copyright laws are like in Oz...and how do I stand with my Lit stuff seeing as I'm not a USian.

 

[sr71plt]

Vague ponder: wonder what the copyright laws are like in Oz...and how do I stand with my Lit stuff seeing as I'm not a USian.

There's a Web site for that: www.copyright.org.au

 

[starrkers]

Thanks pilot. Seems we're taking the totally laidback approach.

How do you get copyright protection?

There is no system of registration for copyright protection in Australia.

You do not need to publish your work, to put a copyright notice on it, or to do anything else to be covered by copyright — the protection is free and automatic. There are no forms to fill in, and there are no fees to be paid. You do not have to send your work to us or to anyone else.

A work is protected automatically from the time it is first written down or recorded in some way, provided it has resulted from its creator’s skill and effort and is not simply copied from another work. For example, as soon as a poem is written, or a song is recorded, it is protected.

Australian copyright works are protected in most other countries, and copyright works from most other countries are protected in Australia.

For information about who owns copyright, see our information sheet "Ownership of Copyright".

 

[ms.read]

thank you all for the wonderful informations. I thereby certify that this post is copyrighted as of right now, and you ( the reader) are holding the only tanjibble copy!

lmao

 

[keeblercrumb]

Sorry, this is rubbish.

Posting here won't prove a thing regarding copyright ownership.

I'm with James Johnson on this--why would you go to the horse's mouth (the U.S. copyright office) on this issue when you can sail down some dark path in pursuit of what one of your cyber chum's Aunt Hazel heard at the hairdressers?

Only Internet chatrooms can be this zany.

Gee... I really hope not........ Ignoring the "usual suspect" crap (shame on you JBJ) I did go to the site... copywrite.gov was interesting... including the $45 registry fee... which I suppose is reasonable but kinda takes the "free" out of "free" here on lit.... Don't know about anyone else here... but I certainly didn't go through this!

So.... Were I to download a million stories here and compend them into a book.. (a strange book) and THEN send in my $45... Are you saying I would win in court on the merits of it? (Let us assume we either both or neither have the "Johnnie Cochran" of copyright as our lawyer).. Out of the million, I would guess probably 0% "registered" them... but I would be happy to take them out of my book if they were...

As I said above... Gee... I hope not.

-KC

 

[keeblercrumb]

Vague ponder: wonder what the copyright laws are like in Oz...and how do I stand with my Lit stuff seeing as I'm not a USian.

In Oz.. I think that you would be standing upside down...

(One of my favorite souveniers from down under was the world map with the South Pole on top.... )

 

[Weird Harold]

Posting here won't prove a thing regarding copyright ownership.

If that is true, then what legal basis does Lit's lawyer have for "cease and desist" actions against site that steal stories from Literotica?

 

[sr71plt]

So.... Were I to download a million stories here and compend them into a book.. (a strange book) and THEN send in my $45... Are you saying I would win in court on the merits of it? (Let us assume we either both or neither have the "Johnnie Cochran" of copyright as our lawyer).. Out of the million, I would guess probably 0% "registered" them... but I would be happy to take them out of my book if they were...

As I said above... Gee... I hope not.

-KC

If you held the earliest-dated copyright (the copyright office can't check back to see that no one has requested a copyright on the specific material), and a case went to court, then, yes, you'd be in the better legal position. No one can predict who would win any such case, though. If you were that blatant about it, I'm sure the legal system would figure out what you've done. On a smaller scale, though, yes, of course you'd have the strongest case, if you held the earliest-dated copyright document.

This is all hypothetical, of course. The courts don't get specific about what to do in such cases, because there haven't been any such cases. Practically nothing goes to court on copyright--and look at all the material floating around and being stolen and slapped elsewhere on the Internet. When cases on this start going to court, legal precedence will start to form. The courts don't set precedence before they get cases.

 

[sr71plt]

If that is true, then what legal basis does Lit's lawyer have for "cease and desist" actions against site that steal stories from Literotica?

I think you make optimistic assumptions about what's being done in this regard.

If there's no copyright document to wave, there's nothing going on in terms of a court--or going to be going on.

 

[Weird Harold]

I think you make optimistic assumptions about what's being done in this regard.

Hearsay, maybe, but NOT an assumption. On more than one occssion, I have been told by Laurel -- and she has posted in the forums -- that cease and desist orders have been made against sites that don't repond to a polite request to remove material copied from Lierotica.

 

[sr71plt]

Hearsay, maybe, but NOT an assumption. On more than one occssion, I have been told by Laurel -- and she has posted in the forums -- that cease and desist orders have been made against sites that don't repond to a polite request to remove material copied from Lierotica.

I can tell you I'm going to the moon, too. But you might want to wait for an announcement in the Moon Times that I've made it there before deciding the case is closed.

Threatening a cease and desist order (surely Laurel hasn't claimed the order was issued by a court, has she?) doesn't have anything to do with the courts--or a resolution of the issue based on exercise of law--that I know of--if so, I'd like to see the case cites, because I've never heard of any--and I'm in the business.

It's all still in the realm of Internet hosts being wary of what the law could (read theoretically might) do to them--in the face of not having precedence enough available on what probably would happen to them. What Web sites like this are doing is threatening the offending Web site, and if that doesn't work, complaining to the Web site host. In most cases the Web site host will just pull the plug on the Web site if it doesn't comply--and it's the threat of that which makes the Web site comply (most of the time--less of the time as time goes on, actually, when there's no evidence of teeth in any of this).

Truth be admitted Laurel has no proof from you that this was written by you either--unless you show her a copyright notice. You could have ripped it off someone else. How is she to know? Is she likely to go to court without having some tangible evidence that it's yours? Any lawyer will tell her that is folly. Let's try objective-perspective common sense on this.

If you want a shred of supporting evidence your story is yours, get it copyrighted. And even then, it only gets you to court if there's a problem (and sometime not even then--the courts don't deal with penny-ante squabbles. In most cases you'll have to demonstrate significant loss of money or reputation to make it to court on a case like this). Short of this, it's your word against someone else's. Good luck in getting the legal system to care about a porn story on a free Web site.

Do all of the naive wishful thinking and assumptions of protection you like. When the rubber hits the road is when you'll get a big dose of reality.

Until then, it's all bluff. But if bluff is working, that's good enough for a story on a free porn site.

 

[ms.read]

I can tell you I'm going to the moon, too. But you might want to wait for an announcement in the Moon Times that I've made it there before deciding the case is closed.

Threatening a cease and desist order (surely Laurel hasn't claimed the order was issued by a court, has she?) doesn't have anything to do with the courts--or a resolution of the issue based on exercise of law--that I know of--if so, I'd like to see the case cites, because I've never heard of any--and I'm in the business.

It's all still in the realm of Internet hosts being wary of what the law could (read theoretically might) do to them--in the face of not having precedence enough available on what probably would happen to them. What Web sites like this are doing is threatening the offending Web site, and if that doesn't work, complaining to the Web site host. In most cases the Web site host will just pull the plug on the Web site if it doesn't comply--and it's the threat of that which makes the Web site comply (most of the time--less of the time as time goes on, actually, when there's no evidence of teeth in any of this).

Truth be admitted Laurel has no proof from you that this was written by you either--unless you show her a copyright notice. You could have ripped it off someone else. How is she to know? Is she likely to go to court without having some tangible evidence that it's yours? Any lawyer will tell her that is folly. Let's try objective-perspective common sense on this.

If you want a shred of supporting evidence your story is yours, get it copyrighted. And even then, it only gets you to court if there's a problem (and sometime not even then--the courts don't deal with penny-ante squabbles. In most cases you'll have to demonstrate significant loss of money or reputation to make it to court on a case like this). Short of this, it's your word against someone else's. Good luck in getting the legal system to care about a porn story on a free Web site.

Do all of the naive wishful thinking and assumptions of protection you like. When the rubber hits the road is when you'll get a big dose of reality.

Until then, it's all bluff. But if bluff is working, that's good enough for a story on a free porn site.

IF Laurel or Manu Found out that you "the writer and submitter" of the story to thier site that wasn't originally written byyou, you would be in violation of the TOS and Rules and Regs of this site and you would be Banned for LIFE and pursued in court systems to full extent of the law.

 

[sr71plt]

IF Laurel or Manu Found out that you "the writer and submitter" of the story to thier site that wasn't originally written byyou, you would be in violation of the TOS and Rules and Regs of this site and you would be Banned for LIFE and pursued in court systems to full extent of the law.

Big word that "if." I've addressed that. On what basis are Laurel and Manu going to definitively "find that out"? They suspect and even be comfortable they know--not in a way a lawyer would represent them in court short of a copyright document in hand, of course. They certainly can ban on whatever basis they wish to. It's their Web site.

I can't even remotely believe that anyone engaging in this activity gives two figs that they would be banned for life from one of hundreds of Web sites like this (even given that this is one of the best).

Now about pursuing in the court systems--I've addressed that too. Cite me a court case. Otherwise, please stop asserting your hopeful assumption as being reality.

Nice to have optimistic thoughts like this, but this alone won't protect you or take you to court. If you feel better not knowing or believing you are somehow being taken care of, you certainly are welcome to that. I'm in the business of either doing real things to protect the writing bringing me money or just saying "Oh well" on a site like this where I stick stories I just happen to like writing.

There are other threads around here where posters report finding their stories on other sites and have reported it here. This isn't in any way addressing the legal/courts aspects of copyright protection this thread deals with, but it is at least real evidence of what, if anything, is really being done. How about some tesitmonials from folks noticing their material is posted elsewhere, doing whatever they could do to get it taken, and then it having been taken down. That at least would be some tangible evidence of what really can be done--rather than some pie-in-the-sky assertion of hope and wishes of what the law will do for you.

 

[sr71plt]

The blustering and posturing about all the legal activity going on at Lit. to protect copyright is a little amusing. Large glops of copyrighted material from writers posting elsewhere on the Net is being stolen and slapped on the forum here left and right--and is being left there. If concern for copyright protection was at its peak here--in either theory or practice (either by posters or the Web site owners)--that illegal reposting would quickly vanish, and if the legal activity some assume is going on was in fact going on, the Web site owners would be spending as much time defending lawsuits in court as pursuing them.