We’re moving right along here on TBME. We have a bunch of pages pencilled and are moving on to inks and colors. Diego is a madman and is pumping them out like crazy. Unfortunately there isn’t really anything to show you, but as soon as we have some more finished product to roll out, you will all be the first to know. In the meantime, I am going to repost a blog I posted back in August. Hope you all enjoy it.
The Big and Scary Copywrite Monster!
All over the net and at every Con you hear the same question: How can I protect my work and stop people from stealing my ideas?
There are all kinds of slick ideas on how to create a copywrite on your intellectual properties. A common one passed around is to mail your IP to yourself, and then leave the envelope sealed to prove the integrity of the date stamped on it. The premise is to prove that the work was done and completed at a specific date as shown on the front of the envelope. Unfortunately, a little bit of steam and patience invalidates the integrity of this method. You can try a million ways to do it, but, other than officially registering with your government agency, you are better off just doing nothing. The advantage of submitting said work to a copywrite office is that you have a piece of paper stating that that it is yours.
The Golden Rule: Once you create something, it is copywritten.
As soon as you finish that masterpiece or opus, it’s yours (assuming it’s an original piece). It all boils down to burden of proof. If you find that someone is making money off IP that is extremely similar to yours, you need to find a way to prove that you created it first. If you can prove that the story/art/character is yours, and have something to back that up, you have no problem. By paying the fee and submitting it to your local copywrite office, they will send you a reference numbered legal document dated to show that it is yours. If you can spare the money, and you have great faith in your piece, I would highly reccommend doing this. The cost of a proper copywrite is tiny when compared with the ensuing legal fees to prove the work is stolen.
HowlingMan has created a wonderful group called the “Aspiring Comic Creators Guild”, and a question was brought up about how to share information within Z2H while still protecting it. I believe that posting in the public forums would show a greater burden of proof than sharing PMs because more people are seeing your ideas, so there are more accounts of it. There is obviously a flip side to this though. The more people that see it, theoretically the more chances there are to have your work stolen. There is always a risk when showing your work, but consider this: would you rather risk getting your idea stolen, while getting feedback to create a better and more marketable property, or would you like to have the “greatest story never told” hidden away in your dresser drawer where no one will ever see it?
99.9% of everything created was based upon someone else’s work or ideas. How many painters have painted sunsets? How many werewolf stories are there? Multiply the number of years the human race has been around by the exponentially growing number of us on this wonderful planet, and then determine whether your idea is 100% original. Sure they come along once in a while, but most work is simply an artist’s (writer’s are artists too ya know!) interpretation of the same idea. There’s no shame in that. Some of the greatest works in history are pulled from other peoples ideas. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a perfect example. It was based upon tales passed around from travelling gypsies.
If you would like to find out more information, here are some great links for you:
Canadian Intellectual Property Office
As more stuff pours out of my brain, I will try pass it along your way. If you have any questions about this, or anything else, please shoot me a message or reply.
Cheers,
j
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