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Poor Man's Copyright - help me!

SpellingB	Date: January 28, 2004 @ 2:35 AM Just found out that the Poor Man's copyright can be easily faked. http://www.copyrightcover.com/poorman.htm I thought it was ok to use this method for my lyrics, but this site totaly rips the method apart (and unfortunatley makes some very valid points). Has anyone else been mailing their work to themselves? Are my envelopes I've been mailing worth ANYTHING to me?!? HELP!!!!
TameasDust	Date: January 28, 2004 @ 2:56 AM in court no http://www.dmusic.com/forum/copyright/4259#25 a forum on the topic
fallfandave	Date: January 28, 2004 @ 12:29 PM The super poor man copyright is to never copyright anything....instead write stuff so shit ....no-one will ever bother to rip u off.....i find this works every time for me ...and costs $0.....but art aint about makin money....be an accountant if u want money.
robin101	Date: January 28, 2004 @ 10:40 PM There is NO SUCH THING as a "Poor Man's Copyright" which is legal. Call the Library of Congress's Copyright office and ask them to mail you "Form PA". Follow the instuctions and do it the correct way. Man this topic is getting old.
TameasDust	Date: January 29, 2004 @ 2:40 AM but it keeps coming up ...
robin101	Date: January 29, 2004 @ 9:37 AM I suppose every generation develops a genious who figures out a brilliant way to beat the copyright system. Too bad they don't know that this has been brought up fot at least the last 35 years or so... This is neither a new, clever nor brilliant idea. It's incorrect and will always be incorrect...and no, notarizing it won't help you either. Any other old ideas to be brought up as "new" again? A song is an "asset" just as any other physical asset: as in a car or a home. It is however referred to as an: "Intellectual Asset". Just as a "title" shows ownership of a vehicle, or a "deed" is - to a house, a copyright is an official document proving ownership of your intellectual asset. It's that simple. The copyright is neither "good" nor "bad", it simply exists - for your protection.
Distilled1	Date: January 29, 2004 @ 4:29 PM And its so easy to do
100thmonk	Date: April 28, 2004 @ 2:41 PM as for canada, call SOCAN and they'll walk you through whatever you need to do. simple.
robin101	Date: April 28, 2004 @ 6:42 PM I came up with a great idea! If anyone infringes on your song…DON’T WARN THEM! Actually, it would be a better idea to HELP THEM SELL IT! After it goes “platinum”, you can sue them…and they will have done all the work for you. Even WITHOUT a copyright, you are allowed to bring in witnesses in order to prove that you wrote the thing at a prior time. As long as you can convince the Judge, you’re “made in the shade”! hahahaha Ask Leflaw…he should be able to convince you that this is possible.
sinai	Date: April 28, 2004 @ 7:30 PM i'm an expert on this... you can check my credentials at www.ihatearrogantfucks.com
sinai	Date: April 28, 2004 @ 7:31 PM
robin101	Date: April 28, 2004 @ 7:49 PM LOL
robin101	Date: April 28, 2004 @ 10:33 PM Hey..I checked out your site: www.ihatearrogantfucks.com Seems you'll never have to worry about copyright infringement...hahaha
sinai	Date: April 28, 2004 @ 11:00 PM indeed
AxedNeil	Date: April 29, 2004 @ 12:09 AM only took like 5 months to get the copyright papers back on my first project
robin101	Date: April 29, 2004 @ 5:40 PM That time is about normal...if it makes you feel any better.
bradegel	Date: February 14, 2005 @ 10:12 PM My uncle is a copyright and trademark attorney...i know...you are happy for me But anyway...the best advice was given above...if you can provide witnesses that your work was created prior to someone else using it, it is likely that a court would rule in your favor. Especially with corroborating evidence such as dated recordings, mailings and the like If all else fails..hire Johny Cochrane... If the song doesn't fit..you must acquit! Bradley
parr	Date: February 21, 2005 @ 10:49 PM Okay, but it's not good enough to just prove you created the work. You need to register your copyright prior to someone else infringing it in order to win the big bucks (statutory damages, just ask you uncle). All the info you need about copyright can be found here: http://www.copyrightcafe.net
Hatsy	Date: February 27, 2005 @ 1:27 PM Forgive my naievity but is song stealing a widespread problem?
TameasDust	Date: March 29, 2005 @ 10:28 PM if it is good ... someone will take it and say it is theirs ... a CHARGE you just to sing it
Hatsy	Date: March 31, 2005 @ 6:43 PM
takamineg240	Date: April 9, 2005 @ 1:48 AM Now that Johnny Cochrane is dead, we will have no one to defend this country again attacks!! Everyone rush to the neareat post office and send yourself 10 copies of each of your songs. On a more serious note, I at onetime believed this Poor Man's system worked, but then a good friend of mine informed me of how easily it can be defrauded. So just use the good ol government system. Play it safe.
Hatsy	Date: April 9, 2005 @ 7:26 AM I guess the best system is to register your songs with the MCPS straight away (it's called that in the but I am not sure what system you have in other parts of the world) What is the government system? I'm not sure if we can count on mailing our material back to ourselves any more, does anyone have any new info on this topic?
SimonWaldram	Date: April 9, 2005 @ 7:49 AM I've just registered my work with the UK Copyright Service (http://copyrightservice.co.uk/). It only costs £5 a year and all you have to do is fill in a form and send them a copy of the recording. Whatever country you live in will have a similar service, so do it! It's cheap, easy and a damn sight better than someone getting away with ripping you off.
zedsalt	Date: April 9, 2005 @ 12:30 PM I read recently about a new service offered by the U.S. Copyright Office that sounds like it could be really helpful. I've always registered material one 90 minute cassette at a time. I couldn't understand why folks would pay to register songs individually, until a friend pointed out that no one can search by song title when one registers more than one tune at a time. Now, one can pay a small one-time filing fee and avoid that problem. Cool, eh?
TameasDust	Date: October 19, 2005 @ 3:05 AM needs to be sought again .... new people same ole thoughts
Intergalacti...	Date: October 23, 2005 @ 7:14 PM blame the irish
ZsigE	Date: October 26, 2005 @ 12:41 PM Something you ought to know if you live in the UK - there is NO central copyright registry. The one mentioned by SimonWaldram is a private business, and probably will work, but don't think that it confers any great legal privilege on you because it's "official" - it isn't! What you can do, however, is deposit your work at a bank and never re-open the box. Banks keep a record of whenever anyone checks their safe-deposit boxes, so if you don't open it you've got solid proof that you owned the music before anyone else. Should work, according to http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/indetail/copyclaim.htm which IS official - note the .gov extension.
TameasDust	Date: May 25, 2006 @ 1:58 PM nah blame the welsh ... they dunna have a flag

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