Have a little problem (being plagiarized)

[akiratubo]

An ex-friend is plagiarizing me a great deal with his webcomic.  I need to put my stuff online so that it will be "published" and I'll have grounds to stop him.  I know of a couple of writing websites that will allow me to put my stuff online.  Would that do the trick?

[Menard]

An ex-friend is plagiarizing me a great deal with his webcomic.  I need to put my stuff online so that it will be "published" and I'll have grounds to stop him.  I know of a couple of writing websites that will allow me to put my stuff online.  Would that do the trick?

Not really.

I can publish lots of stuff on the internet and mark it as copyrighted, but the question is 'when exactly was it published on the internet?'.

If it is a big site and they have their own servers, then there may be a fallback to the server logs to prove when it was published, provided they would even consider helping you if it came to that.

Aside from copyrighting your work properly, which could add up in cost, you could use the old standby of letting the post office prove the date of your work by mailing it to yourself. A notary public my even sign and date your work for a small fee.

If you want to publish it online, I would recommend that you register your own domain and either set up your own website, or just set up a blog to which you can publish your work. This way it is published and you can provide a general copyright notice of all work on your site like Andrew does for this one. Since you additionally own the domain, it just looks more legit than publishing it on someone else's site where anyone can publish something, then claiming it's really your's.

[ghouck]

This'll help, it's an .88 Mag, , it shoots through schools.

[Ash]

Or you could use this...



It never runs out of ammo.   

[Rev. Powell]

Send him a "cease and desist" letter citing each specific instance of plagirism.  It doesn't matter what his reaction will be.  You want to establish that you asserted your rights to the material as early as possible, that you didn't "sleep on your rights".

If you think you have a commercially viable product, I would go ahead and swallow the fee and register your copyright.  If you ever want to sue for copyright violation you'll need to have it registered.

Think about any evidence you can think of that establishes that you were the originator of this material, including the testimony of friends and family.  Also, think of any evidence you could produce to show that your ex-friend had access to the material he copied.

Menard is right about publishing it on the Internet; the issue is establishing who originated the material.  Publishing it on the Internet at a later date than your ex-friend did, wouldn't help you and would actually suggest that you copied his material.  Mailing it to yourself won't hurt but wouldn't help very much either.  He already established the first date of publication.

A notary public won't help; they only establish the legitimacy of the signature, not the truth of the matter contained within. 

Also, be sure he actually plaigirized you.  You wouldn't want to waste your time if you don't have a case for copyright violation.  Ideas can't be copyrighted, only expressions.  So if, for example, you voluntarily told him your idea for a novel, and he rushed it out your basic idea in webcomic form before you completed the novel, you wouldn't have a case for copyright violation.