4 ms·

Note that he says all were pre-release, but only three were copyrighted. Argh! Copyright attaches to a work upon creation, not upon sale, or slapping (c) on it

• tedunangst 16y ago
  Unpublished words are not automatically copyrighted. If someone steals your unpublished work, and publishes it themselves, you will be out of luck unless you registered the work.
  • jbri 16y ago
    Actually, unpublished works are still copyrighted. The issue here is that you have to show that you created the work if you want to make a copyright claim, which is difficult if the work is unpublished and not registered.
    • tedunangst 16y ago
      That's true. "not copyrighted" and "unable to prove it" are unfortunately basically synonymous.
    • alexqgb 16y ago
      Not so. While courts require registration before they'll enforce your rights, the process itself demands nothing more than an assertion - under penalty of perjury - that the work in question is yours. And that's all. A lack of publication or registration is only a problem if you're challenging the legitimacy someone else's copyright. And yes, that's considerably harder to do - as well it should be. Does this mean that it's easy to register the copyright for unregistered work that isn't yours? Yes it does. But actually doing so is insanely stupid, since getting caught means opening yourself up to both a civil lawsuit from the rightful owner, as well as Federal perjury charges. And since you're involving the courts themselves in your fraud, you can expect whichever judge you face to be especially unforgiving. Unsurprisingly, knowingly falsified copyright registration is not a widespread problem.
  • ekanes 16y ago
    If you scribble a silly poem called "Green Froggy Dance!" on a soggy napkin and tuck it under your mattress, that work is still copyright. It's not registered, so your damages in case of infringement aren't the same, but nonetheless your work is your own. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright "In all countries that are members of the Berne Convention, copyright is automatic and need not be obtained through official registration with any government office. Once an idea has been reduced to tangible form, for example by securing it in a fixed medium (such as a drawing, sheet music, photograph, a videotape, or a computer file), the copyright holder is entitled to enforce his or her exclusive rights. However, while registration isn't needed to exercise copyright, in jurisdictions where the laws provide for registration, it serves as prima facie evidence of a valid copyright."
  • ekanes 16y ago
    Aside: how come people are voting this comment down so hard? Even if it's incorrect, it's not nasty or ill-spirited. Shouldn't it be left at a "1"?
    • sorbus 16y ago
      It's factually incorrect and demonstrates a lack of basic understanding of the subject. It seems that HN frowns upon that. On the other hand, I doubt that the downvotes represent the opinions of a huge number of users (as it doesn't show lower than -4). If enough people agree with you, then they'll upvote it to +1 (I would say that it belongs at 0, but that's just me).
      • tedunangst 16y ago
        fwiw, nothing ever shows lower than -4, but based on karma, if it weren't for that cap, it'd be -10.
• alexqgb 16y ago
  Interesting that you know that, while a Federal Agent - who is actually charged with enforcing the law - does not.