[silver_queen]

Is there any way that I can claim a piece of writing is mine, without having to copyright it?

I've written a story that I would like to send to a person through either post or email, but in both instances I wonder if there is any way that I could make it clear that the document is mine and that it must not be edited from that form. I know that a copyright does all those things and more but I don't want to have to take a copyright out since they are not important pieces of work, just some stuff I did at school... but I still want it to be clear that it's my work. I could of course sign what I send but that could easily be erased or edited out.

Any suggestions?

[jennie]

Save it as .pdf or as an image. Need help?

[Schatze]

Blog it to the web and you'll have a permenant record of when you wrote it....before anyone else's eyes see it. Xanga.com is a good blog site. If you're a writer, you may enjoy Xanga for reasons other than just protecting your work.

PDF it too and send it to a few people so they have a permanent record of when they received it.

Hope this helps

[silver_queen]

Thanks for both of your suggestions. I've saved it to my livejournal account which is the same as opening up a blog I suppose. However I don't know how to save it as a pdf.

[jennie]

You need the full version of Adobe Acrobat to create a .pdf file. I will be happy to do this for you. If you want me to, then email the file to jen.618@gmail.com

[silver_queen]

I noticed that adobe allow the creation of 5 pdf files in a free trial; would that be any good?

[jennie]

Yes, if you don't mind shareware on your computer.

Have you tried creating an image of the document? You can use the CTRL + PRTSCN buttons to capture images displayed on your monitor, then use paint or some photo editing program by PASTE(ing) the image into a new image and then crop the image to view only the text and then save as .gif or .bmp

[silver_queen]

If I saved it as an image, it wouldn't save all of it right? just the part on the screen? my document spans 8 pages...

[silver_queen]

It's ok, I managed to sort it all out, and thank you for all your help jennie

[Schatze]

Alright Silver! Good luck on your writing.

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((hugz))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

[LMo]

You don't have to legally do anything to have a copyright; merely using the symbol is enough:

http://www.copyrightauthority.com/

[silver_queen]

((((((((((((((( Schatze )))))))))))))))

Thank you!

[silver_queen]

LMo, that's a useful piece of information, thanks for bringing it to our attention

[(JD)]

Be sure to add the year of copyright. Keep a copy, send it to yourself for date verification and print it off, keep in paper file? The problem is proving it's yours if it's "stolen." Most honest ppl will keep to the understood rules, but some will not. sigh. I had a cartoon taken that way. Turned up in a major magazine! When you find it somewhere else under someone else's name or such, the publication won't even respond to you unless you have representation with the documentation. It is easier now that the general copyright rules abound. (It wasn't always so, and you had 2 years to register your copyright work.)

TC

[SeptemberMorn]

Silver, all you have to do is write "Copywright" and your name at the bottom. I learned this on the poetry website I used to belong to.