Copyscape is a useful link. Thanks.
I was always under the impression only an amateur would put a copy right on their work as the person who originally wrote the piece has copy right by law. At least that is the information I got from publishing houses, agents and editors. Might be different for the internet.
Can some one tell me how to get a copyright for my story and what do,s it cost. I live in France. Thank you
@erotichugs. They are your stories, you need not do anything necessarily.
The fact that you've written them in the first place (and most likely have proof of that) makes them your intellectual property. If you wish, simply add your copyright information to them also.
I'd encourage you to do that on all work you submit, anywhere on the web.
On another short story site when copyright was being discussed one author (MathGirl for those who remember her) came up with: "I just wish someone liked one of my stories enough to steal it. I would be so flattered."
9Erotica actually will take down the stories posted without permission if you can manage to find the contact links on the site. Posting comments on your work pointing to where it actually can be found will do the trick as well -- eventually.
Compared to the average story-stealing site, which is typically based in China or a former Russian satellite state and is nothing more than a vehicle for ads ( and sometimes malware ) it's among the least offensive.
One thing everyone needs to remember and not delude themselves about is copyright protection in the U.S. While you do have a copyright as soon as you produce the work, you can't bring anything to court unless you have a formal copyright filed with the U.S. copyright office. In other words, you have zero real legal standing without that formal copyright.
Even with a formal copyright, it's nearly impossible to persuade a court you've been damaged when the theft happened from a site where you posted the work for free.
That being said, most people don't understand that, and asserting your copyright with proof of where it was originally posted with your permission and a formal DMCA takedown is sufficient to encourage some interested parties to take action, provided you can find them and they aren't accomplices in shady activity.
Moral Suasion is also a factor. Amazon has been known to wipe out collections of stolen work when reported. They have no legal obligation to do so, and I'm sure they actually understand that, but they still do it when provided sufficient information to demonstrate the theft and a formal DMCA notification.
Don't think you're getting back any of the profits the thief made off your work, though.
The hard and simple truth is that once you release something into the wild of the internet, you lose control over it. The odds are better than not that someone is going to steal it in some way, shape, or form. You'll spend all your time chasing those thieves down their rabbit holes and never get any writing done if you stress too much over it.
Undoubtedly, people are going to argue with this *laugh* Someone always does. I did myself before taking the time to research, and being guided in that research by a long-published mainstream author and professional editor.
If you want to be depressed, take a reasonably unique line from the first few paragraphs of something you've written and put it in a Google search in quotes, so the search is looking for that exact series of words.
Just don't click any of the links that it finds unless you have iron-clad malware protection.
What's the ruling on if someome takes a poem I wrote and molds it to fit their needs? I wrote this poem called Slice of Cake. I wrote it to cheer up an xbox friend that was getting down. A few years later someone I know heard a song on the radio that made them stongly think of my poem. So I started listening to the station it was heard on and sure enough without telling me what poem or the name of the song imitating it I knew as soon as I heard it. I'm talking about Casting Crown's "Just Another Birthday". If you were to read "Slice of Cake" and listen to the song you would know what I mean. There is nothing I can do avout it. It's just a slap in the face.
Hi guys,
I've yet to post any erotica on Lush but I intend to. I'm guessing many people use pseudonyms on here. How do you copyright your online work if you're using a pseudonym? I'm a published writer but I do not want to use my real name on Lush for obvious reasons: I'm trying my hand at something new, I don't want to self-censor and I probably would under my real name, and -- well -- I don't know if I'm any good at this yet.
That being said, I want to protect my work. Does it help to post things across multiple platforms (Medium or a personal blog under your pseudonym) in order to protect it? Or does that simply make it far more likely that your work will be stolen?
Anyway, I don't have a lot of experience with self-publishing online so I'm not sure how one usually protects material.
Does it cost anything to copyright ones stories?
As long as I'm here, I'll bring up a trick you can use against Amazon thieves who take work from sites like this and publish it for pay on Amazon.
Amazon has a policy where the work can't be available elsewhere cheaper than it is on Amazon. Free qualifies. Use the reporting functions to link to your original work. I know several people who have had near instant satisfaction getting their stolen work removed from Amazon with that simple trick.
Hello,
I was wondering about injecting a copyright notice into the hearts of the stories. Would Lush Stores be fine with this? It may detract from the user experience but would make it more difficult for bots to scrape the story, or at least they'd scrape the copyright with it.