Actually, no its not. It will not replace a copyright, but will serve to establish a date stamp for your work. You will still need to get a regular copyright. If you and John Doe are working on identical projects and try to file for a copyright at the same time, this will help to show who completed the work first. Unless, of course, the instructor for the basic copywrite course I took a few years back was blowing smoke out his arse lol :)
Quote from: Giacomo on December 19, 2006, 01:22:54 AMIf you and John Doe are working on identical projects and try to file for a copyright at the same time, this will help to show who completed the work first. Unless, of course, the instructor for the basic copywrite course I took a few years back was blowing smoke out his arse lol :)
Yes, I think he was. Do you have any example of where this has worked? It simply makes no sense: it obviously can't prove anything, nor establish a "datestamp". It is so easy to fake that I can't imagine a court (at least in the United States) taking it as an example of anything other than someone trying game the system.
If you'd like me to, I can use this method to show that I wrote Sorceror sometime before August 31, 1982. I wrote it at my parent's place in Michigan, and mailed it to my school address, because I knew it was a cool idea that tons of people would try to steal. I'm shocked, shocked! to discover that someone else has published it under their own name.
And I also predicted that you would write your post 24 years later, right down to the same fonts!
It's simple enough:
1) the post office does not require that your envelope be sealed, or even have anything in it.
2) even if an envelope is sealed it is easy enough to re-open it and re-seal it.
In my case I happen to have a manila envelope that my parents used to mail something to me; I've been re-using it ever since to hold a D&D adventure, but it's still intact and still has the "datestamp" of Aug 31 A.M. 1982. I could easily slip a rewrite of Sorceror into it, or a printout of your posting from 2006. What would it show? Nothing other than that I'm either a packrat or a well-prepared scammer.
Jerry
Well all I can say is I trust the source of my info. We'll just have to agree to disagree. :) (btw can you honestly say that envelope looks just as good now as it did in '82? lol)
This thread is fully and totally closed. Do not post here.
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Best, Ron