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Sire
June 9th, 2010, 02:57
I have a few questions regarding obtaining a license (and copyrights) and placing them onto a piece of work. Note that I have little experience in this subject, so please phase responses in peasant's terms instead of a professional.

The reason for this is for the purpose of knowledge, and as a resource I may be able to tap into in my later years.

1: Can copyrights and licences be issued to only one man, not to a group of people or corporations? (I assume this is possible because of author's novels and the like, but wish to clarify)

2: In the steps to creating products, do you licence / obtain copyright before the product is finalized, or after?

3: In the event that your original idea was stolen and copyrighted / licensed by a different person / group, can you obtain that idea back by citing evidence that you were the original creator?
(Note: I know there are rare events when two people think of something that is almost exactly the same thing, but for the sake of the question, throw out this possibility)

Thanks in advance to those that answer the above questions.

A New Room
June 9th, 2010, 11:21
1: Can copyrights and licences be issued to only one man, not to a group of people or corporations? (I assume this is possible because of author's novels and the like, but wish to clarify)

I'm pretty sure it is possible, though it may depend on what you are trying to copyright.


2: In the steps to creating products, do you licence / obtain copyright before the product is finalized, or after?

Well I imagine you should probably obtain a copy right somewhere before it is in the public domain.


3: In the event that your original idea was stolen and copyrighted / licensed by a different person / group, can you obtain that idea back by citing evidence that you were the original creator?
(Note: I know there are rare events when two people think of something that is almost exactly the same thing, but for the sake of the question, throw out this possibility)

Well I'm not sure if this still applies, but you used to be able to set a copyrights by sending a letter to yourself with a first draft or proof of idea in it. If you were ever asked to back up your claim you just show them the unopened letter and there are also records of it going through the post. But then again it also used to be that copyrighting somthing was just as simple as puting the copyright symbol on it, so I'm not sure :/

Necror
June 9th, 2010, 12:10
everything is copyrighted except if its copylefted or the guy who made is is dead for 70 years or somthing

you might be thinking of a patent thats a diffirent thing for inventions and stuff



the sentence below is bullshit
-©Necror inc.

dotted
June 9th, 2010, 12:24
1: Can copyrights and licences be issued to only one man, not to a group of people or corporations? (I assume this is possible because of author's novels and the like, but wish to clarify)
Copyrught is always issued to the creator.


2: In the steps to creating products, do you licence / obtain copyright before the product is finalized, or after?
You are automatically assigned copyright. You can in some countries register your copyright, which makes legal issues easier to deal with, but in most countries this isn't a possibility.


3: In the event that your original idea was stolen and copyrighted / licensed by a different person / group, can you obtain that idea back by citing evidence that you were the original creator?
(Note: I know there are rare events when two people think of something that is almost exactly the same thing, but for the sake of the question, throw out this possibility)
You cannot copyright an idea, but you can patent it. If you have a patent, then yes you could sue. And if two people got the same idea at the same time, the one who got to the patent office first would hold all the rights, just look at the invention of the telephone for a good example of this.

Necror
June 9th, 2010, 15:22
dude thats exactly what i said just longer

kyle
June 9th, 2010, 16:01
Not really, Dotted's was more informing.

dotted
June 9th, 2010, 16:40
dude thats exactly what i said just longer

Except you said you give up copyright if you copyleft something, which isn't true. Thats making something public domain. WFTO uses a copyleft license but we still have the copyright.

Sire
June 9th, 2010, 20:15
Alrighty, so what I got out of this is...

Copyrights are automatically issued to the creator, but he/she/they can register copyrights making legal stuff easier to deal with. Not available in most countries.

I am not talking about an invention, but rather characters and series (franchises?). I assume it is the same as copyright and is automatically issued to the creator. Please clarify on this.

* * *

I'm mostly hoping for copyright / franchises that are available only to one man instead of a company. The reasoning behind is that I've been countless company merges or a larger company buying out a smaller one and the smaller one, which once used to be a great business, gets thrown out of wrack because of the merge or buyout. This leads to the good companies getting thrown out of business while the corrupt businessmen that run the larger ones get all the profits and crank out ****y games.
Of course, there are exceptions (Square Enix is one I can think of, I don't think there has ever been a problem with them)

Would post a bit more, but time is catching up on me, and I got things to do... ><