Copyright

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Fri, 2005-10-21 07:26

I love it hear on ABC Tales!

I love getting the cherries, I love giving & recieving feedback, I love just chewing the fat with fellow creatives. There is, however, one little concern which has niggled on me recently. Where would we stand - I mean, legally - if some unscrupulous personage decided to snaffle our words off the site and publish them under their own name? Especially as many of us here submit works under a pseudonym, therefore don't even have our real names attached to what we post to ABC. Personally, I have been seriously looking into avenues for publishing my Larry & Mick stories recently, and I don't want to find they are already 'out there' somewhere under a different name!

Tony... Mark... anyone else... Any guidance/reassurance you can offer in this matter will be much appreciated.

Regards,

*** pepsoid ***

Fri, 2005-10-21 08:10

Brighton Rock

So, of the 36,000 odd pieces of work on ABC, you reckon someone is going to see that cos some Larry and Mick stories have been cherried, they will be so taken with them, that they wil go off and publish them (ignoring the several thousand other cherry picked pieces of work)? One can get too carried away you know. I'm glad that you are enthusiastic about your work, but how many times do you have to flag up about wanting to get L&M published? If you're SO worried, then take them off the site. If you do get to a stage whereby an agent or publisher is interested, you'll have to anyway. I am a very grumpy man.

Fri, 2005-10-21 08:37

maddan

You own the copyright to your own work whether you publish it in your own name, or another, on the internet, in a book, on a motorway flyover etc. until you sign away that right to a publisher. If you are worried about people stealing your work, don't put it in the public domain. If you are worried about being able to prove it's your own I believe the traditional method is to send yourself a copy by registered post and not open it. There have been documented cases of very successful authors stealing the plots of less successful authors *coughjeffreyarchercough*. I doubt copyright theft of unpublished work goes much beyond that. I think we need a new word to distinguish between publish as in posted to abctales, and publish as in they pay you real money.

Fri, 2005-10-21 10:16

Enzo

Peppy - Nothing to worry about mate. Intellectual property and all that. Although I think if you decide to submit for a competition or publication sometimes they want exlucsive rights so you should take it off here. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong. I entered a compeition once. I didn't win. Also, I didn't come second or third. Rejection and I have never been friends. From what I hear, there's more rejection in writing than anything else - So I'll stick to ABCTales, thank you. Without bitterness, Ben.. www.thedevilbetweenus.com

Fri, 2005-10-21 10:43

mississippi

[ I love it hear on ABC Tales! ] Come on paranoid... I mean pepsoid, sort yourself out.

Fri, 2005-10-21 11:28

styx

When one posts something on this site surely it's dated? Therefore omitting the need to send oneself a registered copy. This reminds me of something I read some years ago concerning Coronation Street. (It was in the Guardian so it must be true.) Producers and directors set up a seminar and invited common or garden people and hoi polloi, to come along - meet the stars see the sets etc. Towards the end they were asked if they could write some plot lines. These were all met with the uniform response 'Thanks we have your phone number don't we?' Yes you guessed; some months later plot lines very like the ones submitted began to appear. Coronation Street producers had their knuckles rapped, but that was about all. The same thing happened to me in the music biz. I wrote a song that was used in the band I was in. We split up and some months later went to see the band that the guitarist had joined - 'Rudi Tchaikovsky'. To my surprise my song was introduced by the band as written by them. After, I spoke to the guitarist and explained that I had copyrighted the song by sending a tape of it to myself by registered post. (I was lying) But his face fell. I don't know if they continued using the song but they did break up some months later and I went on to fame and misfortune. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!!!!!! Nurse - my medication!

Fri, 2005-10-21 12:01

Whogivesashit

Too late, Pepsoidon-affair. Whilst you were turning yourself upside down with worrry over my Lairy and Mark stories - which were nothing but a smokescreen - I was busy selling the serialisation rights to Larry and Mick. I have retired to a small island off the Isle of Wight on the advance a national newspaper (or was it The Beano?) has paid me me for my forthcoming column. Mwahahahahahahahahaha!

Fri, 2005-10-21 12:48

Brighton Rock

<> The Beano? My and they used to have such standards. Remember the Barry and Dick stories of the late 70's. Now that was worth nicking.

Fri, 2005-10-21 15:43

tcook

Pepsoid - you own the copyright - you just give us the right to publish them on this site - but you can remove them at any time yourself - see the Terms and Conditions. It's a moot argument over whether it is more dangerous to publish your work on here or keep it in a book at home. Basically, if it's published on here under your pseudonym (and we have the email address which you supplied when you registered so we can demonstrate that that person is you) then you have demonstrated at that time and date that the copy was written by you. If someone steals it and publishes it under their name then they are committing a breach of copyright and you have proof that the original is yours. Case closed. If, on the other hand, you have been posting stuff to yourself then that is likely to be challenged in court as 'untrustworthy' evidence. It could happen, it hasn't yet, and I very much doubt that it will. I wouldn't have started this stie unless I was confident that it provided a better form of protection for writers than not publihing their work. I believe it does - but the final call is yours!

Sat, 2005-10-22 11:28

#10

pepsoid

Thank you for your encouraging words, Mr Cook & others! I just wanted to say to one or two of the above that (A) I am not being paranoid! As I am pretty new in this 'game' in terms of actually making the effort to get published & paid for what I love doing, I just wanted to make sure all the facts and legalities were clear in my head. And some of what has been said above has put my mind at rest on a few points... ...and (B) I'm not getting 'too carried away'! - I know, in the grand scheme of things, it's pretty unlikely someone will attempt to steal my stories from ABC & make a fortune from them elsewhere. & I know that, because I have got a few cherries, that doesn't suddenly make me an ABCtales superstar. But I'm just trying to think positively here! I mean, if I don't believe in my work, how is anyone else going to? I have had an experience recently where I've sent some stories off to a competition, and they've been unhappy about them existing on ABC, so I've removed them. If they don't choose them, I might put them back! I will, however, continue to post my writing on ABC, because it's a great way to recieve feedback from fellow writers and to boost one's confidence. It's amazing what a small red fruit can do to make one feel good about oneself! Anyway, again, thanks for all of the above... [Frog/Computer story coming soon!] :-) * P * :-)

The All New Pepsoid the Second!

Sun, 2005-10-23 01:05

#11

stormy_petrel

>>>Does anyone know if anyone has ever actually pursued a legal case (let along won one) on the basis of the 'send a letter to yourself' method of copyright protection?<<< No. >>>I think it's highly unlikely but I can't think of many literary plagiarism cases that have got to court and there must have been some. I heard a long while ago that Dan Brown was going to be hauled before a court for The Da Vinci Code and have just googled to see what the lastest is. I dug up this interesting blog which features one of the guys (Lewis Perdue) who is suing him, I think. It's an interesting read if nothing else but what it does show is that ideas in writing cannot be copywrited ... in other words - any of us could write something along the lines of Larry and Mick but so long as we don't actually copy verbatim and use different story titles we might get away with it. http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/?p=59 PS It also contains links regarding internet plagiarism andother useful stuff none of which I've read yet but I'm sure will be useful to pepsi the paranoid and others who suspect their gems might be nicked. btw, or should that be pps, i read a Bryson book many years ago in which he was still pursuing a plagiarist from his news column days. Can happen to anyone.

Sun, 2005-10-23 01:08

#12

stormy_petrel

hmff, my post is in reply to the seond part of David's post I quoted. My reply to his first quote was 'No'. The formatting seems to have got buggered in the ether.

Sun, 2005-10-23 01:09

#13

stormy_petrel

The mising 'c' in the above was not due to ethereal problems but in my typing being buggered.

Sun, 2005-10-23 02:56

#14

stormy_petrel

Gawd, I've spent the last 20 mins or so browsing that site. Talk about stating the bleeding obvious (Pepsi, you'll love it!). I can only assume that either plagiarism is rife in the USA or he's the sort of bloke who believes that the Moon landings were filmed in Area 51 and 9/11 was a CIA plot. Goodnight PS. I hereby copywrite the title "Larry and Mick (insert any other words here) Plagiarism" Just try it Pepsoid and you'll be inundated with lawsuits quicker than you can say 'project aurora' (google that)

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