Copyrighting and editing?

[wolftown204]

If you copyright a book or invention, and later edit some of the book or invention, how does that affect the copyright?

 

[The Occultist]

What is the name of your state?

 

[wolftown204]

they call it louisiana. lol. But I'm referencing the national level.

 

[The Occultist]

What is the specific situation you are asking about? A book would fall under copyright, but an invention would fall under patent. So, in order to receive as accurate an answer as possible, what is your situation?

 

[wolftown204]

This one is for a book.

 

[quincy]

Your book is copyrighted as soon as it is written. Providing a copyright notice or registering your book with the U.S. Copyright Office is not necessary. Editing the book will not change the rights you have in your written words - it just changes the words you have rights in.

For example, when you wrote your first post, the words were automatically copyrighted because they were fixed in a tangible form, created by you, and had a modicum of creativity (well, sort of ). When you edited your post, by either deleting words or adding words or changing punctuation or spelling, the post in its new form was still copyrighted.

Even if you alter your book to the point where you create what is basically a new book based on the content of your old book, you still retain the copyright in the work. No one else can make a "derivative" of your book, except you, without your permission.




(by the way, because of the terms of service of this site, FreeAdvice owns the copyright in your above-posted words, not you)

 

[wolftown204]

I don't appreciate freeadvice being able to market my very valuable words I use in my posts. Lol. Kidding. Thanks for the advice.

One more question though. Say you write a book, and you decide to get it copyrighted directly by the government, which takes a very long time. During that time or after, you edit a few things out, add a few things in. Is what you removed now out of copyright, and is what you added now in copyright?

 

[FlyingRon]

You don't understand. The government doesn't "copyright" anything.

You have copyright from the moment you express your original work in tangible form. If you edit it, the original parts still have the copyrights that they had when first written down. The edited parts potentially get new copyright from the point they are made. Since the late eighties when the US finally adopted the Berne Conventions, that's all you need.

What you do with the government is "register" your copyright. Registration occurs as soon as you submit it to the government. It doesn't take "a lot of time." Registration gives you some additional rights such as the ability to pursue in federal court. I guarantee you, registration is faster than the time to get a federal suit even to the first steps.

 

[wolftown204]

alright, thanks.