Copyright in Canada Question (some details)

The Last Gent

I have a friend who’s currently completing a novel, and who’s looking to get it published. More importantly, we’re looking to get it copyrighted before that goes out. Thanks to some digging, we’re mostly clear on how it works, except for one thing. The Ehow guide indicates we’ll need to specify the date of publication. The thing is, it’s not published yet. Now, I’ve heard tell that a friend of hers copyrights lyrics and poetry that have not been published, so I want to know, what do we do if it’s not published yet? As mentioned in the title, we’re in Canada, not the U.S.

shutz

As far as I know (I'm not a law expert) until your friend actually gets published (or publishes himself, which is becoming more and more common -- and viable -- these days) there's no need.

If your friend is afraid that someone might steal his writing and get it published as his own, have him print up a copy, pack it in an appropriate envelope which can be sealed, and then requires permanently breaking a seal. Then your friend can mail it to himself. All that's left is to keep the unopened manuscript in a safe place. If someone actually steals your friend's novel, he'll have incontrovertible proof that he wrote it. But that's really unlikely.

Publishers won't steal a novel that is submitted to them. For one, it would be pretty tacky of them to do so, plus the legal ramifications just aren't worth it, considering the backlash, and the fact that, for a first novel, what they need to pay the writer is such an insignificant part of their costs.

Another reason to not get an unpublished novel copyrighted is that, when you submit it for publication, you're actually ceding some of those rights to the publisher. If you go to them with something that's covered in copyright notices, they might just reject it outright, to avoid the hassle of extricating the rights they require from the rights the author originally obtained.

The case of a songwriter / poet is slightly different, because these can be "performed" without ever having been published, so there's a good reason to get copyright early, in that case. You could apply a similar principle to a play, for instance.

An unpublished novel by a novice (I'm assuming your friend hasn't had any previous novels published, or he would know more about copyright and the publication process) is practically worthless. It only becomes valuable once at least one publisher shows interest.

One last thing: your friend might want to hang out a bit in The Writer's Block. There's a few published writers there, and they might have more specific information to impart (and they'll be in a better position to confirm what I just wrote.)

The Ender

You have basic copyright over your own work from the moment you create it. If you want some extra protection, mail a copy of the manuscript to yourself (and don't open the package). That's solid evidence of you having written the work at a given date.

Generally speaking, you should be less worried about copyright protection and more worried about actually having the manuscript picked-up by a publisher. Also, if you're going through the proper channels (an agent), it's all but impossible for a publisher to steal/plagiarize your manuscript. that's half the reason agents exist in the first place.