Postby Haibane Shadsie » Tue Feb 17, 2004 4:49 pm
Legally, all you have to do is "Copyright YourNameHere, 2004" or (C). However, yes... be careful with your stuff if you don't have it officially registered.
Official registration, however, costs some money. I got a novel-type thing of mine officially copyrighted once... but I regret it and feel like I wasted my money, because, in hindsight... the work was awful. I hate that story now. It's a piece of writing that I thought was wonderful when I was doing it, but after writing more and growing... gah! It's SOOOOOOOO bad!
With my current stuff... I'm just careful. I have ways to show proof of things being mine if things ever come up with me in court. There are things of mine that I don't post online for fear of being ripped off. Some things, I do post, but I keep original versions and such with me, including, very often, my handwritten stuff that usually preceeds anything typed. I just.. am taking risks with those things.
There is also what is called the "poor man's copyright". This is where you take a copy/printout of your work, seal it in an envelope, and mail it to yourself. Then, you keep it and never open it. Because it is sealed and has a postmark on it of a particular date from being run through the postal system, you have something of proof of "this is mine" if things come up in court. Still, this isn't steel-clad, and won't provide the real protection an offical U.S. Copyright Office copyright can.
~Speaking specifically for literary Copyright~
As far as putting a (c) or "Copyright" on your work... I've read in the Writer's Market that most publishing houses and agents DO NOT like that if you send a manuscript into them. It's just something that they somehow find unprofessional and prefer you not to do that, because they know/trust that the work you send in is copyright to you, and they don't like to see it re-iterated in a possessive way... or something. It's just something I've read in my own experiences of trying to get my work professionally published. (I have a box full of rejection letters to prove my efforts!)
"We will never give up and despair, for we are on a mission from God." __ Hellsing, Vol. 2.