quick favor/question

[Justice193]

I've got a catchphrase I've copyrighted, which I'm including in all my signatures, but obviously I don't want to have the big copyrighted speal written underneath it; could I ask that the [acronym] BBCode be added?

thanks in advance

[IceKitsune]

You can't legally copyright a phrase you can trademark it but you can't copyright it.

[Justice193]

technically speaking, anything you create that is an original work grants copyright to you, all that you need is proof that it is your original work, the easyest way to document this with a catchphrase you have determined to be an original work, is to write it down on a piece of paper, and then mail it to yourself, and NEVER open the letter; the only reason you have done this is in case it ever has to go to court, that letter and the time stamp on it is your proof.

I have determined my signature to be an original piece of work, (go ahead, type it into any search engine, the only thing it will bring you to is me, or a place I've posted, and therefore, me) this isn't even a derivative of someone else work, it's completely original, mine, I therefore have copyright, and the right to create derivative works, and the authority to decide how other people are allowed to use it, and because I intend on using it for the rest of my natural life, I feel it only prudent to ensure no one else can ever claim it as their own.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

on top of that, trademarks are a form of copyright exclusively for identifying the origin of a product or service, this has nothing to do with a product or service, it has to do with identifying myself, the fact that my intended area of use is the internet means that my copyright extends to the entire globe.

[IceKitsune]

technically speaking, anything you create that is an original work grants copyright to you, all that you need is proof that it is your original work, the easyest way to document this with a catchphrase you have determined to be an original work, is to write it down on a piece of paper, and then mail it to yourself, and NEVER open the letter; the only reason you have done this is in case it ever has to go to court, that letter and the time stamp on it is your proof.

I have determined my signature to be an original piece of work, (go ahead, type it into any search engine, the only thing it will bring to you to is me, or a place I've posted, and therefore, me), this isn't even a derivative of someone else work, it's completely original, mine, I therefore have copyright, and the right to create derivative works, and the authority to decide how other people are allowed to use it, and because I intend on using it for the rest of my natural life, I feel it only prudent to ensure no one else can ever claim it as their own.

It doesn't matter if it original or not US copyright law doesn't cover individual words,common ideas or short phrases. Phrases are under under Trademark law. http://www.wisegeek.com/can-i-copyright-a-phrase.htm unless I'm misunderstanding something here I not wrong you can't copyright a phrase

on top of that, trademarks are a form of copyright exclusively for identifying the origin of a product or service, this has nothing to do with a product or service, it has to do with identifying myself, the fact that my intended area of use is the internet means that my copyright extends to the entire globe.

The Berne Convention is still what is used for the applications of Copyright globally which states that the copyright laws of the place where the copyright is claimed shall be applied to the work which means you still can's copyright a Phrase because you can't in the US where I'm assuming your from. And just because you can't Trademark something does not mean you can just copyright it they are not the same thing. No matter how much people want them to be.

[Typhon]

So if i put this: "We ignore the dreams that are begging to be heard," on my term paper, i can go to jail?

[Justice193]

This can include fixed forms of unique ideas, compositions, plays, novels, song lyrics and so on, but they do not cover individual words, common ideas or short phrases. While the desire to copyright a phrase closely associated with a business or an artistic concept may be understandable, US federal copyright laws would not offer much in the way of enforceable protection.

the problem with trying to enforce something so small is that it can take a considerable amount of work, and they are for the most part never actually original pieces of work, it's near impossible for something so small to have never been said before, and so to alleviate this sort of confusion, US law prefers that people register a trademark for this purpose, however, if an individual can provide irrefutable proof that they are the original creators of the phrase or thought, there is little a court can do to stand in their way if they want to protect it.

The current copyright laws in the United States would automatically assign a copyright to a phrase or title or other unique or original expression. There would be no need to submit the short phrase to the official copyright office, but some people may want to establish the creation date of a short phrase in order to protect themselves from copycats.

(this is the reason I sent a letter with it to myself, which I'll never personally open, it does the same thing without having to pay the government to do it.)

trademarks also limit themselves to not being able to be reproduced for commercial reasons, anyone can use them for other purposes, similarly, copyrighted phrases or sentences, no matter how well thought out, wold never see a court case if someone simply said it, and the most that such a copyright does in writing is require that the source be credited as such, and the most that legal action would impose is either a public appology, that the author be credited, or both, normally just the credited part, as an apology would be an extreme reserved for a popular figure or company trying to infringe upon it.

There is a good reason why it is nearly impossible to copyright a phrase. Copyright laws are only effective as long as the copyright holder remains diligent about prosecuting violators. If an individual decided to copyright a phrase such as "Hello, may I help you?", he or she would shortly be overwhelmed by the number of potential copyright violations. The phrase would be in such common usage that enforcement of a copyright would be virtually impossible.

it's not that they don't allow it, it's just normally so darn hard to prove it's generally considered a waste of time (and so the reason I'm taking actions; as it stands, mine is rather easy to prove: I'm the only one to have ever used it to date)

so to answer typhoon, no, you won't go to jail, but your term paper may be refused if they find you didn't give me credit for that quote. because if that ever got around to me that you used it without my permission or giving me proper credit, I'd be forced to take action or lose my copyright, and I intend on keeping it.

[IceKitsune]

Look if you cant copyright a Tweet from twitter no matter how original it is then you can't copyright your Phrase you can Trademark it like I said but you can't Copyright it.
Edit: I've been all over Google and still can't find anything that says you can Copyright a Phrase if you have something that says other wise please by all means show it to me.

[Justice193]

lol, of course you can't copyright a tweet, just as you can't copyright a post on facebook, haven't you read over their agreements?: anything and everything you post on their boards belongs to them unless you have previous, well established, protections in place.

why do you think I don't have an account with either of them? I like to own my work.

[IceKitsune]

lol, of course you can't copyright a tweet, just as you can't copyright a post on facebook, haven't you read over their agreements?: anything and everything you post on their boards belongs to them unless you have previous, well established, protections in place.

why do you think I don't have an account with either of them? I like to own my work.

I don't use either of them so I haven't read their agreements. Again find anything that says you can copyright a Phase and I'll believe you but I'm not seeing it.

Look every site on Google says no you cant copyright a Phrase so I'm inclined to believe every site on Google. The fact is its impossible to enforce a copyright on a phrase so US copyright does not cover them they are under Trademark which is easier to enforce. Ok I might be wrong on this one

[Justice193]

I did. I went through the very link that you gave me and pointed out how it says you can if it's original enough, what more do you want? for me to call up a professional and get them to send you a letter saying just that?

the problem with trying to copyright something like this is normally very hard, such as what this article says here:

A copyright law would only work if the author were diligent enough to control the use of the phrase, which is difficult since a phrase may come to be used in common conversation. A trademark is an alternative that allows authors to easily prove the unauthorized use of any short phrase. An example of a trademarked short phrase is Nike’s tagline, Just Do It.

they all say it, you're just not reading past the first few sentences.

it's my copyright, I plan on enforcing it, it's original enough I know it won't become commonplace, and I am very, very diligent.

I may trademark it in the future, but at the moment the only thing I can afford is a simple copyright, that will not stop me from doing it however.

edit: just to clarify, although we almost identical copyright laws and practices used to create/protect them, I live in Canada.

[IceKitsune]

I did. I went through the very link that you gave me and pointed out how it says you can if it's original enough, what more do you want? for me to call up a professional and get them to send you a letter saying just that?

the problem with trying to copyright something like this is normally very hard, such as what this article says here:

A copyright law would only work if the author were diligent enough to control the use of the phrase, which is difficult since a phrase may come to be used in common conversation. A trademark is an alternative that allows authors to easily prove the unauthorized use of any short phrase. An example of a trademarked short phrase is Nike’s tagline, Just Do It.

they all say it, you're just not reading past the first few sentences.

it's my copyright, I plan on enforcing it, it's original enough I know it won't become commonplace, and I am very, very diligent.

I may trademark it in the future, but at the moment the only thing I can afford is a simple copyright, that will not stop me from doing it however.

Ok I admit I'm wrong on this one I'm sorry but really I don't know how your going to enforce it.

[Justice193]

well, there are a few methods I can use, the very first of which is to do a search every day for it on all of the search engines, but the easiest way to do it is to set it up through Google, so that Google will send me a message every time their spiders find a new article/page using it or something similar, which is what I've done.

and of course tagging the copyright date ownership and symbol onto every place I use it... which is why I would love it if the BBCode: [ acronym ] were to be enabled here... otherwise my signature will continue to look ugly XD

[Typhon]

Just one more question, whats stopping someone from copying your entire quote, and pasting it all over the web claiming its their own? If you try to say its yours with a post marked date on a letter, that person could also have such letter? Its not to hard to reopen letters and reuse their dates.

[Justice193]

this is true, but tampering with an envelope, believe it or not, leaves trace amounts of evidence that it was tampered with, if such a case were to occur, the court would have no choice but to grant it to whomever held the earliest, untampered letter.

on top of that I have my contents dated and 4 witnesses who signed it, just in case ;P.

I doubt anyone would be that stupid, but just to be on the safe side I will be taking out a trademark when I can afford it.


edit: besides that fact, how many letters do you send to yourself?... it almost never happens, and when it does, it's normally for either this reason, or is a package you've sent to yourself so that you don't need to lug something home.

[machchunk]

You remind me of my dad, he's always tweeting 'spiritual wellness' catchphrases and wanting to know if he was the first to say it. http://twitter.com/dougshares
I hope that, unlike him, you actually live by your own advice. Right?

[Justice193]

I'm not one to give advice unless I'm willing to put it into practice effective immediately, it doesn't really pay to be a hypocrite .

I'm certain that if I was ever to be psychologically examined, they'd label me as a somewhat outgoing, introverted person, but I do hope to eventually drop that somewhat from my personality .

[Ebly]

Isn't the basis of this whole topic about getting a new tag added, not about copyrights themselves? Couldn't this have just been a PM?



But jeez, that's ridiculous. I can't help but get a very intense vibe of arrogance from this thread. "I must be credited if anyone in the world says this particular mashup of words." - Copyright E. Brauen at 10:12 PM on the 13th of May, 2010.



no that's not my real last name

[Kyderra]

Isn't the basis of this whole topic about getting a new tag added, not about copyrights themselves? Couldn't this have just been a PM?

But jeez, that's ridiculous. I can't help but get a very intense vibe of arrogance from this thread. "I must be credited if anyone in the world says this particular mashup of words." - Copyright E. Brauen at 10:12 PM on the 13th of May, 2010.

no that's not my real last name

I have to agree with Ebly, Actually wanting to copyright text is silly on the internet,
putting -namehere behind it is enough indication that you made it.

[IceKitsune]

Isn't the basis of this whole topic about getting a new tag added, not about copyrights themselves? Couldn't this have just been a PM?

But jeez, that's ridiculous. I can't help but get a very intense vibe of arrogance from this thread. "I must be credited if anyone in the world says this particular mashup of words." - Copyright E. Brauen at 10:12 PM on the 13th of May, 2010.

no that's not my real last name

I have to agree with Ebly, Actually wanting to copyright text is silly on the internet,
putting -namehere behind it is enough indication that you made it.

I'm sure that you meant wanting to copyright a Quote/Phase on the Internet is silly (and I agree it is) because text could mean a story or essay or something like that.

[Justice193]

but that feels like I'm giving credit to someone else with my name

it started out as this:

If the world keeps spinning, why do we not become dizzy? truth be told, we do from time to time.

like, WTH does that even mean? it doesn't even deliver the intended message, rather, an entirely different one, unless you can see into my mind through them.

long story short, I changed it many times before finally refining it to what you see, it was even a full paragraph at one point... it's not, in my mind, just a simple quote; it's a well refined thought process, that makes a very big statement about who I am, and the fact that it took me so long to refine it made it unsurprising that I was the first to have said it, I just want to protect my effort, because I know there are allot of people that will try to claim a good piece of philosophy as there own when it firsts surfaces... this is the easiest way for me to keep them from doing that, without it I'd have to quietly stew over them doing it while I remain the only one knowing it's origin, and it wouldn't be the first time I had it happen to me.

this is allot to go through to get a simple bit of BBcode added in... which can easily come in handy elsewhere, like an area where a spoiler isn't entirely appropriate, or where you want to expand on something without using these: ( ), and thus interrupt the original train of thought... those things bug me SO much.

Edit: "let's get ready to rumble"-©®Micheal Buffer, is an example of a phrase someone has the copyright for, and the trademark, as I will be doing, he remains adamant about keeping the ©, so as to ensure everyone knows it's his original, and so that he has further control over how it may be reproduced, thus preventing anyone from misusing it, instead of having only the sole right to use it in defining his business.

[Ebly]

"let's get ready to rumble"-©®Micheal Buffer, is an example of a phrase someone has the copyright for, and the trademark, as I will be doing, he remains adamant about keeping the ©, so as to ensure everyone knows it's his original, and so that he has further control over how it may be reproduced, thus preventing anyone from misusing it, instead of having only the sole right to use it in defining his business.

um, no. his actual website illustrates that it is only trademarked. Check "rumble licensing". Well, check pretty much any page, but still. If you look hard, you'll find there is actually a copyright: it's on the original recording.

and besides, to be completely honest, I still don't know what your phrase means. at all. seriously what.

more on track, look how much we use strikethrough and the list tags. I don't know if we need any more tags that people barely ever use. Not never, perhaps, but still not often.

[NoelL]

what

This whole thread is just wow

[Liam]

Better add that tag, unless you want to get arrested by the International Kopyright Enforcement Agency (I.K.E.A.).

And trust me, you don't **** with those guys.

[rickgriffin]

Okay just to make it perfectly clear, Justice, You don't seem to have any understanding of how copyright works. Very few people do, in fact.

For anything that is copyrightable, you do not have to put (c) after it. Ever. The (c) mark is now pretty much used for mass publication only. Adding it to the end of your posts does not grant you any special privileges or powers, not even in Canada. All countries that have signed the Berne Convention adhere to this:

Copyright under the Berne Convention must be automatic; it is prohibited to require formal registration

So if a handful of words is in fact attributable to you, there is no reason to get so worked up over protecting it. Likewise, the poor man's copyright does not work, as it is impossible to actually prove whether an envelope has been tampered with, and trying to base your case on such a thing is silly anyway.

What you'd have to prove in an infringement case is that the unlawful use of your work exceeds Canada's Fair Dealings law. Given that your work is about a dozen words long, it would be stupidly difficult for anyone to use it out of its context as a string of words that was said by you at one point; Fair Dealings does allow for quotations, after all. If you don't care about infringement suits, what do you care about official copyright anyway?

Also in order to qualify for copyright, you also have to prove that it took significant judgement to compose and arrange. Much harder for a sentence than an entire novel.

[Ebly]

okay so i get the impression that means those [acronym] things won't be added

which would mean this topic is basically over, no?

[Justice193]

who says I don't care about infringement suits? why do you think I said I'll be getting a trademark when I can afford the process?
you know, pen ink is pretty easy to date, and signatures pretty muffins and cookies hard to forge... just an fyi...

I'm not really all that worked up about it, in fact I found this rather enjoyable, I just find it hilarious that it's taking so long to get such a useful piece of BBCode put in place... I use it almost exclusively in place of brackets, and in combination with the url BBC to add a bit more definition to links... and if me having the (C) symbol after my catchphrase really bothers people that much, well... it doesn't bother me any, I'm just one of the countless thousands that would rather recognize their ownership of their work, and take their effort a little seriously.

example of its use: [acronym=these are all very in-depth, make certain to grab your favorite cup of Joe before sitting down to read.]gfxartist's digital painting and form tutorials[/acronym]

there, it's nice and compressed, doesn't take up much room, and has more of what you may have wanted to say to the person and anyone that cares enough to check the links description. the acronym tag is all about screen real estate, why clog up a train of thought with nasty brackets when you can use an acronym. people can read through at a normal, uninterrupted pace, and check words or phrases for more information, without being forced to read it... if you don't find that much use for it, that's fine, I personally use it all the time. I like to capitalize on the fact that communicating virtually doesn't need to be the same as communicating with pen and paper; you can fit more thought into less space if you try, and save people huge headaches, especially if your someone like me that likes to expand on a topic and can ramble on and on until you've finally made yourself perfectly clear, and bored everyone out of the chat... like now. I could have all of this so much smaller if I wasn't trying so deathly hard to avoid using those #@(*$& brackets.

[Kyderra]

I will get a lot of heat for posting this, but your arrogance is really bothering me at this point.
I myself, have no idea how the (C) works, nor do I or anyone here seem to care
My brain is just boggled on how you want this in the BBcode.
Special because the saying is so ......boring (no offence, its a ripoff from "follow your dreams" prity sure thats (C) )

I'm not really all that worked up about it,

so you are worked up about it.

t it's taking so long to get such a useful piece of BBCode put in place.

Correct, and you sure think it's needed for this forum, while no one else seems to think so.

it doesn't bother me any,

hence you are still going... and going... and going on about this.

expand on a topic and can ramble on and on until you've finally made yourself perfectly clear

I'm sorry if i offended you with this, but it's been bothering me.
Computer says nooooo.

[Ebly]

...Um.

Okay, the only place I can see this topic going at this point is down.

And by that I mean it's already gone down and I don't want it to get any worse than it is.