Four easy ways to protect your work

Your creation is from your blood, sweat and tears. You toiled over countless moments to seek perfection as you perceive it to be. You want others to enjoy but not to make money at your expense. Below are four simple ways to protect your work.

1. Invoke your right

If you want everyone to know that a particular literary or artistic work is yours, how do you do it? It’s the all important © symbol. Its send a notice to the reader/viewer/internet troll that such work has a semblance of protection. It may serve as a warning to others not to use or borrow without your consent.

2. One Moment in Time

Stop singing! Seriously, protection for your work starts from the moment of creation. So, you have to prove that one moment in time (ok, now you are humming). Have some method of documenting that moment of creation. In this social media age, it will not be hard to do.

3. Deposit with the National Library

Although such action is not a conclusive proof of ownership, a certificate of deposit from the National Library of the work you registered with them has a government stamp. That counts for something in case a dispute arises. Again, it is not conclusive as it is almost a rubber stamp act by the government agency. Sadly, your deposit does not earn any interest whatsoever.

4. Watermarking

Pretend you are painter and sign your name on the bottom left corner. Although not done literally, placing a visible mark of authorship is an effective deterrent for would be “downloaders”. Such mark should discreet enough so as not to spoil the artistic quality.

All these steps cannot guarantee that your work will be not infringed. There are several exemptions to infringement under the law and they may vary country to country. Infringers are getting smarter every day. For every step you make, they'll be watching you. (Again, stop with the singing!)  

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The material in this online newsletter has been drafted and edited by Atty. Roderick Vera and is for informational purposes only. The material above does not constitute nor become legal advice. Please consult with an attorney for legal advice before relying on any information found on this newsletter. For any questions, inquiries or comments, please see the contact information above.

Why you should NOT buy pirated CDs or DVDs

It may seem so easy for any of us to do such a thing. But when you realize that it is more expensive to buy a hotdog at the place of honeyed burgers than it is buy a silver disc of pirated material, it becomes an easier choice. But what is paramount is that buying pirated material is a crime. Whether it is easy to do or cheap to buy, the act is still criminal.

Taking aside the criminal aspect, the real reason for not buying pirated material is the economic incentive that is lost. The reason why our government affords copyright protection is to provide a security measure for a return on investment. All of us want to earn money. Most of us are earning our daily bread by doing things we don’t love. But those who write the music and make the movies are doing exactly what they love to do.

Making music and movies takes money. These artists, if you are willing to call them that, put up money up front for the costs of making their work. One album could cost easily six figures to make and that just the recording studio. Movies are a whole other ball game. It is not uncommon for an action movie from a major U.S. studio to run a figure of more than 100 million.

The only way for them to see that money come back is for us, the economic power that we are, to buy their products legitimately. When you buy pirated material, you give money to scrupulous men who don’t know how to make movies or write music. The wrong people are making money.

If the money comes back to the artists, they will in turn make more music and more movies for us to enjoy. Come on, we all love to hear our music and see our movies. But when there are no more new ones, we will be stuck with watching Conan, the Barbarian over and over again.

You might argue that these creative minds are making too much money such as J.K. Rowling who is now a billionaire. But that argument doesn’t hold water when you buy your cell phone load. Do you see anyone complaining when the Ayala’s are raking it in or when MVP is upping his monthly per diem.

If we had a choice, we wouldn’t want to buy fake burgers or fake sodas. Why should you settle for less when it comes to music or movies?