Inuyasha wrote:
AngelRho wrote:
cw10 wrote:
It still serves as a time stamp for intellectual property. I don't think any other carrier can claim that, and digital formats surely can't.
The only time stamp for intellectual property is registration with the copyright office. The ability to mail your work to yourself doesn't really prove anything. For someone like me, it isn't cost-effective for me to do even that. I'm not even with ASCAP yet. I'm not worried about someone stealing my intellectual material because, frankly, I don't know how anyone would have access to it. Even if I performed my work for broadcast, I could still claim that the idea was mine first because I can point to a specific date for an on-air musical performance, which would be documented in at least one other place.
But mailing it to yourself? If you store your work electronically and someone can access your computer, all they have to do is print it up and mail it to themselves, and there you go. There is cause for doubt that postdate is a legit timestamp. It might help somewhat, but I think that's really just a myth.
Actually, you can use the postal service as a copyright. Just when you receive the physical mail in the envelope, you are supposed to leave it sealed, and if you have to then prove someone is using your word, you take the sealed envelop to court where it is opened in the court room and becomes evidence.
That's "poor-man's copyright." It doesn't work that way.
First of all, a work is copyrighted the instant it is transferred to some tangible form, like paper, storage media, etc. You don't HAVE to register your copyright, though it's always a good idea to do that, and you don't even really have to include the c-in-a-circle--all that does is simply warn other people viewing your work that it's under copyright and they don't have the right to take it. Going through the legal process of registration is just a way to say "I got it first" should legal issues ever come up.
Second, all you have to do is get a bunch of envelopes, put something in them, and mail them to yourself unsealed. You can take someone else's recent work, open it on your own computer, set back the computer clock to a date prior to the existing time stamp on the existing work, burn it to a CD, and then just seal the envelope. And you can do that as many times as you want with anything, whether it's yours or not.
I know a lot of people who do that, but it's really all just a myth. It's just too easy to fake. As far as I know, nobody has ever won a court case based on something they mailed to themselves. If I'm wrong, I'd genuinely be interested in knowing about a court case won by sealed envelope.
06 Sep 2011, 12:43 pm
