Product Creation Part 5

Welcome back to Day Five. There is just one more step for you to take before your product is "complete" :protecting your work.

There is a lot of confusion and misinformation out there concerning intellectual property and copyright. There are also quite a few unscrupulous people who would have no problem stealing your product and passing it off as their own.

One place where this happens frequently is on Ebay. Sellers (granted, some mistakenly) take information products which do not have resale rights attached to them and put them up for sale.

It is rare to see someone go so far as to steal your entire sales page and product, but I have seen it occur on a few occasions. Usually, a stern warning or a cease and desist letter from an attorney will suffice.

However, you'll want more protection for your work if you have to go to court. Also, it is just a good idea generally to copyright your work. It is something to be proud of and you enjoy numerous benefits as the holder of copyright.

Copyrighting E-Books and Digital Products

The first thing you need to know is that an e-book, piece of software, image or audio/video file is considered, by the law, to be a digital work. Any work published and distributed digitally falls under this domain. Technically, a digital work is not considered a new category under the law.

Further, there is still a lot of discussion in the legal arena about the limits of fair use in terms of a consumer's right to print or distribute a digital work.

If at all possible, I would suggest that you file a traditional application for copyright in addition to an application to copyright a digital format of your work. This means you should print out your books, put your media on cd, etc. and mail in these 'hard copies' to apply for a regular copyright.

The reason is that the laws protecting digital work actually vary across jurisdictions. This has to do with how the works are classified in these jurisdictions.

For example, a multimedia work is considered non-composite (not containing multiple copyrightable entities) in most jurisdictions. Yet, a computer game (which obviously includes text, images, music and more) is considered a composite work. The laws don't always follow common sense.

We will stick to the subject of e-books for the rest of our discussion on copyright.

Regardless of what format your work takes, it is always a good idea to consult an attorney. You may also want to check out some books at the library to familiarize yourself with the basics of the law.

Copyrighting E-Books

The U.S. Copyright Office offers a wealth of information which will assist you in obtaining your very first copyright. Take some time to browse through the site and read the section on literary works. This is the category under which you'll file for copyright.

The term "literary", in this case, refers both to fiction and non-fiction, though it doesn't sound like it. Don't worry, though - your e-book is considered a literary work even if you aren't Shakespeare!

The form you will file will be either Form TX or Short Form TX. Here are the basic guidelines for which one to use and when:

Short Form TX

· You are the only author and copyright owner of this work, and

· The work was not made for hire, and

· The work is completely new (does not contain a substantial amount of material that has been previously published or registered or is in the public domain)

We can infer that, for every other case, you need to use Form TX. If you follow my product creation formula using public domain material (a very popular approach these days), you'll definitely file with the short form.

Two Types of Works

Did you know you have more than one option for how you class your work? You can file a copyright for each product you create or you can file a copyright on collected works. A collected work is a category which contains multiple works copyrighted within one entity. For example, songwriters and poets can copyright multiple works at a time this way.

Each song or poem enjoys protection under the master copyright. So, you could follow this method and create, say, "The Collected Works of Joe Marketer" - under which would fall your individual product titles.

The advantage of doing it this way is mostly about time and cost savings. You only file one form and pay one fee to copyright multiple works at a time. You will then file as usual each time you want to add to the collection.

What You'll Need When You File

There are a couple of elements you'll need to pull together into the package you mail off. You'll need a $30 non-refundable filing fee. You'll need a completed Form TX or Short Form TX; and, you'll need at least one full copy of the work(s) to be copyrighted.

Unpublished works require only one copy. If you are filing a work which includes public domain material in its creation, you may need copies of that material as well as additional copies of your original work. Check with the office or with an attorney to be sure.

As far as format goes, you can send you work in on standard printer paper or on whichever media represents your intended distribution method for the work. Use printed, paper copies for e-books.

You will tie all of this together into a large envelope and mail it off to:

Library of Congress Copyright Office 101 Independence Avenue, S.E. Washington, D.C. 20559-6000

Your registration becomes effective on the day the Copyright Office receives and processes all of the materials.