The duly noted® blog

I’ve been asked by a number of clients the past couple of months what’s the difference between our registration service and the classic method of creatives use to provide evidence they have copyright on a work; the so-called “Poor Man’s Copyright”?  So I thought it might be worthwhile explaining. 

In case you’re not aware of what “Poor Man’s Copyright” is, the term refers to a method whereby you seal your work in an envelope and post it to yourself.  The preference nowadays is using Recorded Delivery or Special Delivery (as they’re called here in the UK) so the package has a unique transit number and is trackable.  Upon receipt of the package to yourself, you leave it sealed and keep it somewhere safe in the event the worst happens and some git has the temerity to infringe your copyright.  By producing the unopened envelope in court, you can, by the fact of the envelope’s date-stamp and opening it to reveal the infringed work within, in this way at least verify when the work existed (and by implication certainly a period prior to posting, even if that period cannot be confirmed by the post date itself), as well as what form it was in.

(It should be noted that – for the UK at least – even though copyright is assigned automatically and immediately to an intellectual property’s creator, they will likely still have to provide evidence to prove they’re the author of a work as well as that their work has been infringed.  Poor man’s copyright would form part of this evidence.)  

So that’s poor man’s copyright.  What’s the difference then between that tried and trusted method, and our copyright registration service?  More specifically, how is our service an improvement on it? 

Okay, first let me point out where we’re the same as the poor man’s copyright: 

1. Like the Post Office we’re an independent third party tasked to look after your work.  We are here simply to do our job and have no personal biases to dictate anything in your favour other than completing our task (Unlike your friends or family – who might be accused of bias)
2. Like the Post Office we provide a date and time stamp for your work
3. Like the Post Office we provide a unique tracking number for your work and keep a record about it
4. Like you, we store the work upon registration for safe-keeping

So far so good.  Now let me count the ways we’re better than poor man’s copyright: 

1. The post office shuts at the end of the day.  We don’t.  Our registration service is online and active, 24/7 – even if our office is closed.  If you’re a night owl and want to register your just-finished opus at 3am, you don’t have to wait ‘til opening hours to register it
2. You can register with us from your home.  No requirement to go down the high street, get soaked in the rain, then queue for an age, being continually sneezed on from behind
3. Our registration process takes minutes, and we email you confirmation of registration immediately it’s done.  Postal deliveries can take at least a day
4. Your special postal delivery means you may have to go out of your way to the depot to collect your package.  That’s the Saturday morning lying in bed with the papers lost, then.  Not with us – see 3
5. The Post Office loses countless items every year, despite the best efforts of its staff, I’m sure.  And special deliveries can get lost too
6. Is the Post Office date and time stamp on your package actually legible?
7. We have a flat fee for a single registration, not dictated by first or second class post, delivery method, package size or weight.  So no fumbling with change at the counter, wondering if you’ve got enough
8. We check our system for data integrity to avoid file corruption and keep track of work.  Will you remember where you filed your package, two, five, eight years from now?  What if you lost the details of your self-delivery? 
9. We back-up our client registration data off-site at a secure location.  Our system has back-ups and redundancy in the event of a network problem so as to avoid data loss.  We’ve also ensured our servers are firewalled and physically secure.  Is your self-posted package stored safely?  What if your evidence was destroyed by flood or fire?
10. We cannot access or tamper with your work once it’s registered.  Our protocols and processes ensure our clients work remains untouched and unmodified after registration – which we can verify in the event a client reports an infringment that requires us to present them our evidence for their case.  We can state the work registered has remained as it was the day it was registered, so as to dispell any doubts the copyright owner has modified their work after the fact in order to make a fraudulent infringement claim.  With your posted package, if it came to an infringement case, what if the counsel defending the infringing party accused of you of tampering with your package envelope or simply posting an empty one to yourself, and putting your work in it long after the fact, just to prove your case?  How can you show you haven’t?  What will you say? 

Of course, I’m not saying poor man’s copyright isn’t still a useful and valid method for creatives.  But I do suggest that, if governments and legislators must out of necessity review the law to take into account the brave new digital world, then creatives too must soberly look on how they can best protect and manage their work from their side.  Poor man’s copyright is one such method that’s been scrutinised. 

Call me biased, but I think we’re the next step up. 

© 2008 Julian Boote  All Rights reserved.

www.dulynoted.co.uk

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