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Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
May I suggest some practical answers to my viewpoint? Provide seed money to the copyright office to set up server farm for online submissions, and a return receipt verification for physical submissions. A "copyright pending" (like patent pending, until the copyright office finished the paperwork and issues the copyright. Is this so difficult to do?
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Do authors submit every stage of a novel? The rough notes & outline before submitting a request letter to an agent, the first two chapters & more detailed outline when they get accepted, the first draft before sending it to a publisher, the final just-before-print published version? Who pays for all these registrations? (If the answer is "the author," the result is going to be "no more books written by poor people." Or very few.)
The current reg system is ridiculously overburdened; the copyright office is drastically under-funded. Online registration has an 18-month-and-growing backlog. More money could fix that--but I guarantee there will not be enough to require registration of
everything before publication.
Example: I have a blog. I have 7+ years of LiveJournal entries that have been imported to Dreamwidth. I have vague thoughts of consolidating some of those posts into a book someday--perhaps "Elf's philosophy of modern Paganism." Right now, I don't have to do anything to protect them from commercial exploitation by someone else. Require registration, and I have to register every.single.blog.post before I put it online. Every forum comment.
I chat freely in forums because I know that, if I come up with a particular compelling argument, a twist of understanding that really works, or if I am struck by poetic inspiration--I can save that post, that comment, and decide later if I want to publish it. Certainly, nobody else is allowed to exploit it without my permission. If registration is required before I get copyright protection, I'd stop participating in public forums. (And I'm sure, very few people would mind. I'm using myself as an example here--I know several dozen pro authors would also slam their blogs shut.)
Currently, and previously with the required-notice but not reg until later system, the copyright of drafts were subsumed into the final registered version. But if you get rid of copyright aside from formally registered items, that protection is gone--the author needs to register each different version. If he writes 4 different endings for a short story, trying to decide which one to print, he'll need to register all four--or risk that, if one gets found in his notes ten years later, someone can grab the alternate & publish it without his permission.
Our current business world needs copyright to work before formal registration; remove that protection and communication will grind to a halt while everyone figures out what they need or want to protect. A lot more private forums would show up, with requirement of signed contracts that you won't copy any of the contents elsewhere. Replacing law with private contracts is often a really bad idea (that's what brought us geo-restrictions and EULAs).
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(I wonder whether somebody could invoke copyright to prevent a confession from being used...Hmmm...)
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Only if it were written or recorded. But no--courts can enter entire books into evidence, allowing a copy of them to enter the public record. Use of a copy in a criminal investigation is generally considered a reasonable exception to copyright law. (Check against the four factors: how much does it affect the future marketability of the work? Does the copy serve the public interest?)