Poetry.com?

Question

From all my previous answers, I'm becoming suspicious of poetry.com. Does a "copyright" really exist there? I am never going to post anything there anymore. I wasn't doing it for the prize, I was only doing it to get a quick copyright. But...I'll quit.

Answer 1

Page 26 of the 2007 Poet's Market tells you basics of what you need to know regarding copyright:

"...all copyrights are automatic as soon as the poems are 'fixed' (i.e. written down)..."

Answer 2

AVOID POETRY.COM!

Don't worry so much about copyrighting. The sad truth is that there are more people writing poetry than reading it. Later on down the road, maybe set up your own website where you can secure the rights or you can do the ol' mail your work to yourself bit, allowing the USPS to act as the securing agent.

Answer 3

Listen to Todd.
Copyrighting can get expensive on a per piece copyright, so most use what has been termed as a poor man's copyright. Mail the work to yourself, so that the envelope has a postmark logging the date, but do not open it unless you need to in order to prove when you wrote it.

Answer 4

Anthony, you don't have to be suspicious of poetry.com, they are a vanity press, pure and simple. They tell you that you maintain all your publishing and serial rights as well as ownership of the poem. They don't want to steal your poem, they don't have you...you've given them permission to print your poem into a book that will cost you all the costs associated with printing. That's what they do, and that's all they do. They schedule events that draw other poets who have paid to have their works published into one place to talk about their poems and have a poet-fest of sorts, but that is only to add legitimacy to their true moneymaker: having you pay for your poem to appear in a book with other poems.

I hope this answers some of your questions about poetry.com.

Answer 5

Everything has a copyright the moment you write it. You do not need them for it. If you ever needed to back it up in court mail your poems to yourself and leave the envelope sealed. The date will fix the time of your copyright.

Answer 6

How to Secure a Copyright
Copyright Secured Automatically upon Creation
The way in which copyright protection is secured is frequently misunderstood. No publication or registration or other action in the Copyright Office is required to secure copyright. (See following note.) There are, however, certain definite advantages to registration. See “Copyright Registration.”

Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a work is “created” when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the first time. “Copies” are material objects from which a work can be read or visually perceived either directly or with the aid of a machine or device, such as books, manuscripts, sheet music, film, videotape, or microfilm. “Phonorecords” are material objects embodying fixations of sounds (excluding, by statutory definition, motion picture soundtracks), such as cassette tapes, CDs, or LPs. Thus, for example, a song (the “work”) can be fixed in sheet music (“copies”) or in phonograph disks (“phonorecords”), or both. If a work is prepared over a period of time, the part of the work that is fixed on a particular date constitutes the created work as of that date.


Copyright Registration
In general, copyright registration is a legal formality intended to make a public record of the basic facts of a particular copyright. However, registration is not a condition of copyright protection. Even though registration is not a requirement for protection, the copyright law provides several inducements or advantages to encourage copyright owners to make registration. Among these advantages are the following:

Registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim.
Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration is necessary for works of U.S. origin.
If made before or within 5 years of publication, registration will establish prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated in the certificate.
If registration is made within 3 months after publication of the work or prior to an infringement of the work, statutory damages and attorney's fees will be available to the copyright owner in court actions. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner.
Registration allows the owner of the copyright to record the registration with the U. S. Customs Service for protection against the importation of infringing copies. For additional information, go to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website at www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import. Click on “Intellectual Property Rights.”
Registration may be made at any time within the life of the copyright. Unlike the law before 1978, when a work has been registered in unpublished form, it is not necessary to make another registration when the work becomes published, although the copyright owner may register the published edition, if desired.

Answer 7

I don't know b/c on the page it has a different link to copyright your poems too.So if they copy right it why would they have that link there? I also have poems copyrighted there. check them out search La Brisa

Answer 8

No disrepect but they lure us in and try to sell us a copy of a book they claim is all our works. Then if its ours why do we have to pay for it. So yeah i quit too its nice for someone to say they like my poem its just better when you know they really did like it. Nice to post though

Answer 9

i dont trust that site either thier are other ways to get published and get your works copy writed (sorry not sure if writed is spelled right) but ive never done so i couldnt tell you how. Good choice they are a scam to get you to buy thier book!

Answer 10

I used to visit that site daily, do their contests and even entered poems I wrote. Then I kept gettin letters about how great my talent is and they said I was "eligible" for this award and that award...only thing was I had to pay for it.