How can you protect yourself from plagiarism?

Answer 1

dont show your work to anyone except your editor until it is published..........

Answer 2

The answer is simple. Do not post your work online and do not share it with people. The minute you write something you legally own it. However if you share it, all bets are off. NO copyright is worth a darn unless you have a high priced lawyer backing you up. At your expense. And if you live in Kansas and someone in Malaysia plagiarizes your work online - where do you hold the trial? London?

The so called "poor man's copyright" where you put your work in an envelope and mail it to yourself is not worth the 42 cent stamp. It just proves that on a certain day you were in possession of certain pages. I can teach you ten ways to beat it - starting with cut and pasting and backing up the time on your computer and burning a disk.

Publishers and agents get very upset over people who pay to have their work copyrighted. It kind of shows them you don't trust them. It is considered unprofessional, amateur and rude in the publishing business. If and when you sell your book, your standard author's contract will include a clause where the publisher obtains the copyrights for you. Let it go. Let them do it.

Publishers and agents will no longer touch material posted online. It is just too hard for them to prove original ownership. It would costs thousands in legal bills if another copy surfaced, so if they find out it is online, you can forget about publishing. They don't want it. I took everything I had down long ago and closed my website. I post nothing anymore.

And by the way, what the person above suggested about a security code on your pages is called PDF. It takes less than a minute to break. Totally useless. 8 year olds can crack it.

That is the only way to protect yourself. I don't even let my son read what I am writing. No beta reader strangers online - nobody. Editors and publishers get first peek. That's how it is done.
----
They're, Their, There - Three Different Words.

Careful or you may wind up in my next novel.

Pax - C

Answer 3

By not copying everything everyone else is writing.

I know it's a tough sell, but originality does count still in today's world of writing and publishing.

If you want to stay original and true to your vision, then just ignore what the market is doing for about ten years or so.

Or simply come in later like I did--with writing.

I don't worry about plagiarism because what I write isn't welcome by either the agents or the publishers. It's as simple as that.

So I have no guilty concience to worry about with what I'm typing. :0)

Answer 4

Excellent answers (and several dead-wrong replies) in place, so I've got nothing to add except the note that bewerefan is wrong, at least about US law. (UK laws are different.)

There is no case law that comes up in database searches like Nexis-Lexis in which this "poor man's copyright" mail-it-to-yourself business has been accepted as proof of anything by a US court.

If he can cite case law, I'm open to looking it up and correcting my information, but I suspect it can't be done.

Answer 5

Keep it to yourself and make records that can be used and proven in court to show that you were the creator of that property and you did so on such and such a date.

That way, if someone does manage to steal it, or you get a corrupt publisher that takes it without credit, you will be able to sue to reclaim it. Easy as that.

Answer 6

Ditto for PH, only one correction. While publishers may not like the "poor man's (C)" it is a valid way to protect yourself. It may not be necessary, but it will work in evidence.

Answer 7

ive seen this online, but it only works for online articles
you put a "security" coat over your page so when someone trys to highlight it or right click to copy and paste your own personalized mssg will pop up saying something like "DONT STEAL MY WRITING" try that, sorry i dont know how they did it

Answer 8

Just don't put your stuff online. That's the simplest (and most obvious) way to go.

Answer 9

Not to share before you have finished.

Answer 10

www.turn it in.com