The poor man’s copyright
In one of my classes, the topic of securing authorship to a copyright came up. Someone mentioned the poor man’s copyright method.
The poor man’s copyright entails placing a work into a self-addressed envelope and sending it through the US mail. It sounds like a good idea and I’ve heard of it many times before — from songwriting teachers no less! However, this method is a myth and won’t hold up in court. It doesn’t work because one could easily send themself an unsealed envelope through the mail. For instance, I could send myself an unsealed envelope. USPS would date it and send it back to me. I could then wait till the next Diddy album comes out and place the lyrics from the newest Diddy hit inside my envelope and seal it. I could then proclaim, “Hey, Diddy stole my work. I had these lyrics written out in 2002 — gimme cash now!”
It is true that everything we write or do creatively is automatically copyrighted, but the only way to be sure to secure the authorship in a copyright is to register the work at the US Copyright Office.
