Copy right MERGED (includes 'My work was stolen...')

in the UK anything written is copyrighted immediatly, do you have the original you can prove its been stolen
S

 

Yea, you shouldn't be paying to copyright things. It's intellectual property. As long as you can prove you created it, digital file creation date, witnesses, etc. You win. (This is in the US) the paying only makes it easier to prove the owner. But it is NOT required. it's still yours. Then again do you really want to prosecute?

Someone recently claimed my photography website was their own, meh. I'm kind of flattered.

You should read up on this stuff, save some money! I'm not at home right now... but I have a book that outlines copyright law basics. Might be a good thing to have posted in this forum and the art forum. When I get home tonight I'll type it up... maybe the mods could sticky it.

 

whoa, you were paying to copyright your work?

you were getting conned =/

 

I didn't copyright it because I created it on my old computer which is dead so I don't have the original until I hack into that hard drive and get all of my crap off of it

I only spent a few hundred within the past few years to prove it was mine.

I will probably prosecute.

 

Just a word of warning regarding copyright and companies that I thought I'd toss in here.

Never create anything at work and then email it to yourself. A good deal of corporations have clauses to say that anything sent via their email system or created on their machines is now the property of the company. Now, I've never heard of it going down about personal writing as much as programming code but I bet if you cranked out a best seller and it went through their server, they'd probably come out of their worm hole to get a piece.

I also believe that forum software also comes with a sort of 'open source' clause. Meaning if you post it on a board without having it copyrighted elsewhere, it's all good and golden for the public to take. Might be worth investigating that a little deeper.

 

the forum thing doesn't apply to user content on the forum.

As for the work thing, that's very true! Sometimes it goes even further to say that anything created during your working hours is property of the company!

 

I can see the point, if your going to be sitting there and typing a 1000 page novel
S

 

Yea I don't necessarily disagree either. But it's definitely something to keep in mind. Since I'm sure we all get distracted at some point.

 

Yeah I'm looking up now what I can do in this case. I emailed the guy telling him he has no right to post my work on his site claiming it's his own and I left him a nasty message on his guestbook-so others are aware of his doings.