Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

Help! Help! I'm Being Infringed!

I did a previous chapter on copyright law, and the main take away is that most people don't understand what copyright is about. From my experience in the USA, you gain copyright simply by creating something. What you create is yours. However, only what you specifically create is yours. The idea behind your work is not owned by you. So just because you thought of a magical school before Harry Potter doesn't mean that you have a right to JK Rowlings sweet sweet money pockets.

The act of simply creating something is enough to claim copyright on it, and other than that, everything else is merely there to facilitate the process. If you select copyright when publishing something on Wattpad (it's default selection when posting a chapter), you are asserting it is your intellectual property, and thus, if someone copies it, you have a right to do something about it.

That said, proving you created this intellectual property (rather than stole it), is the only real important thing when it comes to copyright. If you're posting online, your post has a timestamp, and thus the proof has already been established as long as you can trust Wattpad not to implode. Emailing yourself is another way to establish a timestamp. Before the internet era, some people would mail themselves their own manuscripts in order to ensure it's been timestamped and thus prove their own intellectual property.

So, if copyright is a given, what is the point of a copyright page? The point is simple. It's providing the information behind your copyright. Specifically, you're giving people information on how to contact you should they want to use your intellectual property. A copyright page doesn't give your copyright, it's just a statement establishing that you believe you own copyright and how to contact you should someone want to argue it. If anything, a copyright page doesn't protect you from copyright infringement, it makes it easier to contact (and sue!) you if they believe your work infringes on their copyright!

Previously, I suggested true copyright is obtained by filing with your local government. While I certainly think getting an official ISBN number goes a long way toward legitimizing your work, it isn't necessary for copyright. Copyright is... for all intent and purposes, a right. You have a right to your work. However, filing it with the government makes protecting your right to own it much, much easier.

However, I didn't start this chapter to correct some of my own misconception delivered in my last copyright chapter. Rather, I wanted to answer the next logical question. What do you do if your intellectual property is being infringed?

Everyone has this idea where they'll sue the guilty party and everything will magically fall into place and suddenly they make a million dollars. The truth is rarely so simple. So, here's my advice on what you should do if you do find someone infringing your work.

1) Confirm They Are Really infringing your Work.

I've already brought up the idea in this chapter, but you don't own ideas. You own the exact image you drew or the exact words you wrote, but if someone writes a story "like" your story, it quickly turns into a grey area where it's difficult to tell whether copyright was violated. If I wrote a story called Harry Pooter about a magical wizard who went to school with two friends and fought Volzemort at Hagworts... well, you can quickly start to see that I'm starting to infringe on intellectual rights, and the more similarities, the more likely JK Rowlings going to send her army of British lawyers who will sue me politely for all I'm worth. However, if I wrote the story for the sake of satire or parody, that actually can be defended by copyright law.

If law was easy, we wouldn't need to hire professionals to help us understand it. And even with the professionals, there wouldn't need to be judges and juries if the ultimate conclusion was easy and set in stone. So, the most important thing when trying to see if someone infringed your work is by approaching it with an open mind. I know your emotions are probably running high, but you need to consider whether "both our main characters have the same job, have a name that starts with the same letter of the alphabet, and go on the same hero's journey" is a valid case for infringement. This might even involve getting a third party to help (not a friend or family member), asking someone to view your work and theirs and decide impartially whether they think it constitutes theft.