"Postmarked" Copyrights

[mc_crochets]

I know there is a thread about this somewhere, where several of you say you have mailed a copy of your pattern to yourself to copyright it. I just read on snopes.com that

While you need not register your works with the United States Copyright Office to establish ownership of your intellectual property, you will have to register such items if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work.

click here (http://www.snopes.com/legal/postmark.asp) to check it out. I just wanted to put this up since I got it today on my news section of yahoo. Moderators, feel free to move this post to where it *should* be located, (or even delete it if it's old news :lol)

[mimi_mia]

Interesting, but it's not legal in the US, probably not in Canada either. Who ever pays the copyright fee would probably hold the copyright on the item, you know the saying, Money talks...

:(

[mc_crochets]

Thats exactly what I'm saying, some people think that postmarked copyrights are legal...they aren't.

[nataleeza]

I'd always gathered that the idea was to give a bit of evidence of how long you've been doing it, or hopw long ago you made/wrote/created your version.

This is still a possibility in the UK, and I would imagine most commonwealth contries. It seems a resonble thing to want even a little evidence if you ever wanted to fight for your right to it. But it does have to registered mail.

Just my 2 cents (I've been very interested in this topic :) )

[mc_crochets]

I don't really know much about how people are using it, I just knew some people here talked about it, and I saw it on the snopes listings...It was just a heads up from my point of view! :) I hope someone can find out more about it and let us know though!

[crochetkim]

My understanding is that your item is copyright-protected from the moment you put it to paper. The big difference between your standard copyright protection and getting it registered with the Copyright Office is money. It's been a long time since I read the law, but it went something like....if you don't register, you just get the money you lost. (Someone copies and shares a pattern that cost $4, then the amount of the loss is $4.) Whereas, if it is registered with the Copyright Office, there are other fees involved that you can collect. NOW, with that said, remember to be nice to me. :-) It's been a long time since I read that part of the law.

Kim Guzman
http://www.crochetkim.com
BLOG: http://www.kimguzman.bravejournal.com