Debunking The Poor man’s Copyright

Protect Your Rights - Copyright Your Work

As one who can testify to you that protecting your "work" is vital, I strongly suggest that you read this.

Question: "I hear that the poor man's copyright provides enough protection., can't I just use the poor man's copyright?" "Can't I just send myself a copy of my work and the postmark will be enough to prove the copyright?"

Answer: No! - and there are two main reasons why the poor man's copyright isn't worth the cost of the stamps: The poor man's copyright has no legal effect. There are no cases in which the poor man's copyright has been successful!

The poor man's copyright has no legal standing anywhere! Any knowledgeable lawyer can show you it's easy to fake!

How to Fake a Poor Man's Copyright: Mail yourself any CD without sealing the envelope (a manila envelope with fasteners works best). Then put any brand-new CD in the envelope and seal it. Look! You may have a sealed envelope with a new CD in it with a postmark from before the CD was published, but you don't own the copyright to the new CD. It works the same way with any copyrightable material! Many of the benefits of registration are not available with the poor man's copyright. You must copyright your work to collect your royalties.

Without registration within three months of publication, you can't collect any damages or attorneys' fees for infringements that occur before registration or in that three-month period.

You can lose a ton of money while trying to enforce your rights unless you register your copyright before the infringement occurs! You can't collect statutory damages without any proof of financial harm -- it makes the case much easier to win! The only real way to protect your work is to copyright your work with The US Copyright Office, http://www.copyright.gov/

Use both the PA form (music, lyrics, arrangements, etc..) and SR form (Sound Recording [masters]) This is the only legal way to protect all the rights afforded to you by the Copyright Law.

Tip 1: To save yourself money, copyright as many songs at one time as possible. Title them Bozo's collections of songs, poems, instrumentals, etc., this will insure that each individual song is protected within the collection. Bozo is just an example, you can name it whatever you'd like, but just remember to include collection in the title.

Tip 2: Do not pay extra money to have a company register your works for you either. This is protection for the rights to your works, always remember that. Would you let someone hold your atm bankcard? I don't think so.

As of July 1, 2006, it only costs 45 dollars to register.


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