Bahamas Writer Forums - Forums of inspiration for writers worldwide!

1. Becoming a writer
2. Where to write
3. Never too old
4. Writers' groups
5. Resources
6. Time management
7. Overcoming "Writer's Block"
8. Ideas
9. Submissions

10. Promotional writing
11. Rejections
12. Getting paid
13. The Internet
14. "The Power of the pen"
15. Published articles
16. The Bahamas Writer

Bahamas Writer Forums - Forums of inspiration for writers worldwide!
« Copyright headache »

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.
Dec 22, 2009, 1:06am

Bahamas Writer Forums - Forums of inspiration for writers worldwide! :: General Discussion :: Writers' Corner for writers worldwide :: Copyright headache

Author

Topic: Copyright headache (Read 39 times)

romantico
Sapodilla

member is offline

Joined: Jun 2008
Gender: Male

Posts: 16
Karma: 0

Copyright headache
« Thread Started on Sept 11, 2009, 11:37am »

Hi everybody. I don't see much activity lately. Everyone taking a summer vacation? I've been away, and also suffering from the usual computer problems, so haven't been able to contribute much.

I wanted to throw out a question to members, to see if anyone has any experience with this. Here goes:-

I never copyrighted any of my books. It's usually not recommended, as a matter of fact. However, having recently written my first screenplay, I find that the situation is different. The books I've consulted all recommend copyrighting work before submitting it anywhere.

My problem is that I find the U.S. Library of Congress website anything but helpful. Like almost everything run by a government agency, it's unnecessarily complicated and annoying. You have to do everything except have an appendectomy before registering your work successfully. Maybe I'm not computer-savvy, but it's all very confusing and tied up in more red tape than a Valentine's Day basket.

I've found an alternative Copyright Registration Service which looks much easier. In fact there's one in the U.K. and one in the U.S. However, with CRS the copyright is only registered for a limited period (from 4 to 15 years). I don't mind that, but is it really as legally binding as the government's copyright service?

Anyone out there know much about this? Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Paul

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

Fay
Administrator

member is offline

Joined: May 2008
Gender: Female

Posts: 1,987
Location: Bahamas
Karma: 0

Re: Copyright headache
« Reply #1 on Sept 11, 2009, 4:08pm »

Hi Paul,

Don't know where everyone is! Problem with these "new” forums is that members cannot subscribe to the whole forum (all of the forums). Therefore, we are not notified by email when there’s a new post, so members don’t get reminded about the BWF. And you need to bookmark a thread to see other member’s replies.

We were notified in the old forums if we subscribed to the whole forum, but I had to discontinue those as they didn’t have the code feature prequalifying prospective members. This meant I was spammed every day by lots of “bots” (robots)!

Sorry you’re in a dilemma about copyright. I did register several pieces of work with the Library of Congress and had no problem with the process. I only registered long pieces. One was a 103 page book proposal which Avalon Handbooks, California, had expressed an interest in me submitting for their upcoming (at that time) travel publication “Moon Handbooks Bahamas”, but which they later declined. I had provided them with a lot of valuable information, some of which many people would be unaware of. As my experience with Avalon was not a positive one, I wanted to be on the safe side, so I copyrighted the material. The other ones were two children’s books that my mother wrote. I had them copyrighted with the Library of Congress on her behalf.

I downloaded Form TX from the Library of Congress website, completed it, then sent it off with the fee and a copy of the piece I was registering. I did call the Library of Congress at one point because I wasn’t sure how to complete part of the form. They were most helpful. Form TX is for a “Nondramatic Literary Work”. There would be other forms for other types of work.

Hope this helps, but please email me if I can be of any further assistance.

Best wishes,
Fay

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

Bahamas Writer
http://www.bahamaswriter.com
"An informal guide & source of
inspiration for writers worldwide"