: Re: Best practices for designating prose as intellectual property? --Subtitle - What is the cheapest & most simplistic proof an idea belongs to me that will hold up in court. Is my (explained

It's a bit shocking that someone teaching a media law course recommended "Poor Man's Copyright" - it's been generally discredited by pretty much everyone, including the US Copyright office. (http://copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html#poorman) - And, really, if you think about it - what's to stop someone from sending an empty, unsealed envelope to themselves through the mail, getting it dated, then stuffing whatever they want into it at a later date?

So, if you're in the US, and you're genuinely worried about this, you probably want to register your work with the copyright office. That seems to be the clearest proof available.

However, you may want to look more closely at what's able to be copyrighted. It sounds to me like you're trying to claim copyright on ideas or concepts, and those aren't eligible. You can claim copyright on the expression of an idea, but not the idea itself. (eg. a story about a dragon that poops golden eggs could be copyrighted, but if someone else writes their own story about a dragon that poops golden eggs, using your idea but their words and structure, that's not a copyright violation.)

So that's the factual portion of my answer. The opinion portion? Relax. Ideas get better when they are shared freely, and if someone takes one of your ideas and creates something with it, that doesn't prevent you from using the same idea and creating something else with it. Neither one of your is violating copyright, and you're just being part of the creative community.

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: Re: Best practices for designating prose as intellectual property? --Subtitle - What is the cheapest & most simplistic proof an idea belongs to me that will hold up in court. Is my (explained

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: Should I do anything else with this indirect source? For a paper I am doing, I am relying on information from this paper. I can't access without paying, but I found this link containing a

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