Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Re: Poor Man's Copyright Law

You can simply contact the Copyright Office and request forms, the individual application is not that expensive and besides that there is no poor mans copyright law, unless you are referring to common law copyright, which gives you some, but not all of the protection of the federal statute.

Re: Poor Man's Copyright Law

I've never heard of a "Poor Man's Copyright Law" and am not sure what you mean by that.

Copyright registration in the United States is relatively simple to accomplish and you can obtain more information and forms from the Copyright Office web site. The cost per registration is currently $30.

You should know, however, that under copyright law you are protected as soon as you create the work and no registration is required, unless you need to sue an infringer. Again, the Copyright Office web site can provide more information.

Re: Poor Man's Copyright Law

Common-law copyright was pretty well superseded by federal statute when the law was modernized a couple decades ago. There are now for all intents and purposes four levels of protection:

(1) Almost nothing when your work is not yet set down in a "tangible medium of expression" -- i.e. if you recited a new poem before ever writing it down, you would have little or no protection.

(2) Between the time your work is first set down in writing, paint, clay, etc. and the time you first try to commercialize it, you are protected by copyright law.

(3) When you begin to sell, promote, offer for sale, or otherwise place your work into the stream of commerce, you remain protected BUT ONLY if your work is marked with the circle-(C) device, date and your name.

(4) You need to be formally registered before you can avail yourself of federal court to sue for infringement.

As the other lawyers have indicated, this is not expensive, but unlike 1, 2 and 3, it's not free either.

A good investment would be one of the self-help law books published in paperback form for artists and writers on how to protect your work from infringement.