How do I copywright an original piece of poetry?

Question

I wrote poetry when I was younger, I recently came across my poems and decided I'd like to publish them on a personal intranet site. Can I copywright my work without spending too much money?

Answer 1

Best and easiest way is to print them out and send them certified mail to yourself. Do not open the envelope and keep all the USPS paperwork (the receipts and your signed copy). This won't cost you more than a buck or so, and by doing this you've given a "time stamp" of when you "claimed" the poetry. Good luck.

EDITED: Lots of people are saying "just mail it to yourself." Not good. CERTIFY it. That way you have the receipts and it requires a signature. If it ever came down to it, someone could accuse you of having taken just a regular letter, steamed it open and put your poetry into it. Far fetched maybe, but you get much more documentation with certification.

Answer 2

If you publish the poems and keep some form of the proof regarding the date you published them you will be protected by copyright law. The only advantage to applying for a copyright is that you have absolute proof of ownership. If $45 (This might be per poem, but maybe you can copyright a collection of poetry) is too much to get it copyrighted then just publish and keep the proof. I would be very careful of where you publish on the internet. Under the fair use laws they might have some fine print that if you publish on their site they have a right to reproduce it as they see fit.

Answer 3

If you want to copyright your work without spending too much money, you can put all your poetry in an envelope, seal it, and mail it to yourself. You DO NOT open it when you get it back.

If someone in the future ever stole your work and claimed it as their own, you can take them to court and show your envelope. You'd open it up in front of the judge, because the envelope has the date on it, and the date would, obviously, be a date before the other person's work was published.

Answer 4

You know, since I don't know any poets whatsoever who are making money off their poetry (except for contests and some publishing), I would say the cheapest way to copyright anything you have written is simply to mail a copy of it to yourself, and make sure it gets a legible postmark. Then keep it as evidence that you wrote it before a certain date (don't open the envelope). That's the cheapest way to copyright anything - just the price of postage and an envelope.

Answer 5

An old school way to do it is
to put your poetry in a sealed envelope.
Choose an envelope that would be
very obvious if the seal was broken.
Address the envelope to yourself.
Take it to the post office and have
it postmarked and mailed to yourself.

That's great that you are going to publish.

Good luck :)


When you get it in the mail-
don't open it. :)

The idea is that if someone were
to steal your poetry- you have proof.

I don't know if this is considered an
official way to do it but it is a cheap way, at best.

Answer 6

i had a friend who wrote poems..in fact that's how i found her..she tried to get her poems where they would sell on this ladies site and what happen is that she took some of her poems and changed them around so she spent 30.00 trying to get them copyrighted..i wouldn't put anything like that on the net till i did something legal to prove i had them first so if something does happen you have more then your say..

One thing i feel you could do is is get it notarized it would cost me 6.00 here at a bank but i still have to sign, and use my thumbprint and that right there is a record of your work..i don't know about you but i don't have 30.00 and if something comes up that would give written proof..but i would talk to people and ask them what they think about this idea..it was one i came up with a while back

Answer 7

Hazel is correct. Mail the poetry to yourself do not open the mail when you get it back. The envelope will be stamped from the post office with a date as to when it went through processing. You would only open this envelope if you found your work some place else and wanted to prove it's your work.

Answer 8

get some PA? forms from the copyright office.

http://www.copyright.gov/forms/ here are some forms on PDF format.

read the instructions and pay the fee.

then ship them to the offices.

then later you should get some forms back with a noterized stamp or something.

that's how i used to do it.. the old fashioned way.

Answer 9

Here is a link to the Library of Congress. It will give you directions:
http://www.copyright.gov/register/literary.html

Answer 10

you can register a work with the copyright office by filling out the proper forms. You should visit www.copyright.gov for all the information you'll need. Each work you register requires a $45 fee.