Young Writers Society

It's come to my attention that a lot of people think that mailing your work to yourself and then not opening the envelope is a legit way to protect your copyrighted materials. It is not, unless you're in England. (See below.)

U.S. Copyright Office wrote:I’ve heard about a “poor man’s copyright.” What is it?
The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.

(source)

Although you technically own the rights to anything that you create as soon as you create it, it is important to register your work if you really believe it will be stolen. Although a paper trail is helpful (hand-dated hard copies, for example, and other evidence of your ownership) the only way to ensure that you will be able to sue for infringement is to register with your country's copyright office before the infringement occurs. (Registering after might help a little, but not a whole lot.)

The exception is that the poor man's copyright may be of some help in Great Britian. However, it is still not an acceptable substitute for proper and official copyright registration. (source)

I've only heard of this method twice, I think, and the second time from Grif. (I'm wondering if he has anything to say about this?)

I really think unless you are publishing, us young folks don't really need copyright. We get newbies scared of loosing their work, but isn't the whole purpose of this site not to steal but rather to help? Over my four, if not more, years of being a part of writing forums I have only found one person who said their work was stolen. And that was their own fault, and they could never give us proof that their work had been stolen, making it sound more like a ploy for attention.

But sure if your getting published but otherwise no one should be scrambling for copyright, IMO...

It's not something I'm particularly concerned about, either, but there was a thread on it, and I know it's a common fear of any artist. Plus, it's a really common misconception that poor man's copyright is an effective way of proving you created something.

Well, if you really are a poor man, then you don't have money for a copyright, now do you? So anything is better than nothing.

... but it won't help, so you are better to save your stamp money. I mean, it might provide a little paper trail, but seeing as it is possible to mail open envelopes, it won't hold up in court.
Also, I don't believe registering for a patent is that expensive. I've never tried, though, so I wouldn't know.

To be honest, unless you're about to be published, this isn't very applicable to anybody. I don't see many people running over to YWS thinking, "Haha! I can rob a story easy enough and publish it in my own name, because they're too stupid to copyright it!"

The idea of copyrighting unpublished work is reall quite ludicrous. Once it's published, then it's under your name. If it's been published, it's probably not good enough to be published anyway (unless it's a rather good in progress work, in which case, keep it to yourself) and so nobody's gonna come and take it.

I'm with Clau, it doesn't help us much, but at least you've cleared up a pitfall someone might follow.

The truth is, most people who worry about copyright are the ones who never actually get anything stolen. If you're that worried about something being stolen, don't post the work online anywhere. Keep it on your computer, or in your notebook, and only show it to trusted friends if you ned help.

That's the surefire way to keep it safe.

EDIT: Oops, it sounds like I'm having a go at you. It's more a rant at copyrighting. Sorry if it sounds that way.

Jack could never go at anyone

Yeah... I mean the one thing this site should most be concerned with when it comes to copyright and publishing, is first publishing rights, which doesn't even matter to the most of us if we don't plan to get what we are working on published. But for the older end of the site, who are looking to be published, they need to know what you are doing.

And I don't think keeping it in a notebook or on your computer is safe either! Nanowrimo teaches us all to back up your work! Seriously, don't loose anything! It's happened to me before; not fun.

And remember: when you post it on a website, you're publishing it. Pure and simple. But that's the cool thing about being a young writer. Your works are bound to suck when you're young. It's only when you get older, with plenty of critiques and stuff, does it get lessened.

I always thought it was silly to copyright unpublished works, but I see this myth come up a lot on writing and other artistic-y based forums and places of discussion, so I thought it would be worth adressing.

(Posting it on a website might count as publishing in the eyes of a publishing company, but I have no idea how well it would stand up in court, if at all.)