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In Don Quijote de la Mancha, at the very end Cervantes states that Don Quijote is dead, never to be resurected, brought back to life, live again etc. He goes on for quite an unbelievable time stating this. His reason was that in his day there were no copyright protections at all. Authors would steal each other's plots and characters then continue the adventures. It was the best he could do to protect himself and his work.
Today we have copyright laws... but exactly what is a copyright? A copyright is simply a mechanism to protect the creator of a work from intellectual theft. It entitles the owner to sell, gift or simply keep a work for himself. Beyond that, it has no power at all.
Once a work is gifted or sold, then the recipient has conveyed rights. Here is an analogy: If you embroider a beautiful shirt for someone and gift it to him, do you later have the right to rip it off his back because you want it back? I'm sure all would agree, absolutely not!
The same holds true for a work. If you place an article, poem or whatever on ANY website, you have gifted the right to display that work on that site. If the owner of the site sells your work, he is stealing from you and that is not tolerable. However, once you have placed the work, you have no more right to remove it than you would to rip the embriodered shirt from someone, even though you made it. By placing it on the site you have gifted or sold the right to display that work on that site.
Now how do you get a copyright?
First simply by placing copyright and date on a work, it is then copyrighted. All works at Marine Life are copyrighted in your name in that manner. You can right mouse click, view source and you will see you are the author and primary copyright owner. Myself and Prose-n-Poetry are listed secondary simply to add the force and weight of Prose-n-Poetry to your copyright claim. However this copyright is very weak and might not stand up well in court.
Another method which is more secure is placing a copy of your work in an envelope. Seal it heavily and carefully. (Be sure you say on the work: copyright and date.) Take this to the post office and send it registered mail to yourself. DO NOT EVER open it ! This will give you an official copy, dated by a government agency which proves that you created the work on such and such date. I used this method for the song I wrote, Honeybee. Should you ever discover someone has stolen your work, you have proof of ownership that will go a long way in convincing a court.
I would advise the second if you think you have something outstanding. In the case of Honeybee, the envelope contains the written sheet music and a CD with both midi renditions.
The last method it through the federal copyright office. It is definately the safest way but there are papers to fill out and fees to pay. Here is their website: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/
This method is advised and essential manditory if you have written a book.
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