Copywrite question??

PissedChicken

does any one know how i can my comic copywrited

Ardent

POst it to yourself by registered post and keep the unopened package in a safe place in case you ever need to open it in a court of law.

PissedChicken

Ardent wrote:

POst it to yourself by registered post and keep the unopened package in a safe place in case you ever need to open it in a court of law.

that helps to prove its my own idea but to actually get it copywrited. And is there any comic publishers in ireland that you know of

Ardent

I did a bit of research into this recently. Any artistic work, once created, is automatically copyrighted. As far as i can make out, you just need proof of when you created the work in order to secure international copyright.

In the US, one can submit his/her work to a government body - a patent office or something - with an appropriate fee in order to copyright their material within the US. There's no such body in this country or in the rest of Europe AFAIK. What I've posted above is way things are done in terms of copyright in most countries.

PissedChicken

so you dont know any comic publishers in ireland. thanks for your help.

Downtime

PissedChicken wrote:

so you dont know any comic publishers in ireland. thanks for your help.

A) There is no such word as copywrite so everyone is presuming you mean copyright.

You must publish it or make it available to the public to have it copyrighted

C) You might find a publisher here http://www.irishreader.com/Pubs/Pubs.htm but there is no comic publisher in Ireland.

PissedChicken

thanks.

Fysh

PissedChicken : it's rather difficult to find publishers for comics in Ireland (by which I mean the Republic, since the north is technically catered for by UK publishers such as 2000AD) and as far as I know most people have gone the home-publishing route, either the old-school photocopier way or by arranging printing runs and later contacting people like Diamond to sort out distribution deals themselves.

Examples are comics like Mbleh!, Freakshow (now distributed by Diamond), Sancho's Last Case, Malsaine, or Havoc 21. You could do worse than check the sites for these comics and contact the creators to get advice.

Freakshow is written by Robert Curley, who works in Sub City in Dublin. If you check one of the stickies there's details on how to contact the store - I know there's a couple of email addresses around for Rob but I don't know how uptodate they are.

Mbleh! was/is written by Bob Byrne. See his site www.clamnuts.com for details on how to contact him. (email is bob at clamnuts.com)

Sancho's Last Case was written by Ian Whelan and Alan Nolan. See the site http://www.20000-leagues.com/ for details, but you can contact them on sanchocomic at hotmail.com.

Malsaine is being published by newly-set-up Imprint Comics. check out their site at http://www.imprintcomics.com/ - there are various contact options listed and they may be able to help you.

Lastly, Havoc 21 is an anthology-type comics magazine edited and published by Eugene Byrne. You can find out more about it at www.wolfman-productions.com : it's the closest thing to an irish 2000AD I've seen and may be the best starting point for you, depending on what sort of experience you've got in terms of doing comics.

Of course, you could also opt for the webcomic option - I have my comic on Keenspace (see keenspace.com for details on how to get your comic hosted for free), but there are other options such as the ones used by Neko The Kitty (www.nekothekitty.net) or the guys who do DrasticComics (www.drasticcomics.com). You could do worse than check out my comic's Links page for links to a few more Irish webcomics.

Hope this helps...

Edited to add:

Also; regarding copyright. Technically as the creator you own the copyright to anything you create and as such any ancillary products bearing its likeness. However, in order to avoid any legal issues with this, it is a good idea to put some form of copyright notice on any comic you make available to the public whether for free or at a price, by using the copyright symbol (which you can get by holding down ALT and keying in 0169) and stating your name (can be first initial and surname) and the date or at least year of creation. If you want to have something that will be accepted in a court of law, you can either post a copy of the work to yourself by registered mail or make some sort of arrangement with your bank. (Posting to yourself is generally easiest and cheapest).

You may be confused by the similarity between the notions of trademark, copyright, and patent. This can get a bit involved and rather than pass on my not hugely clear understanding of the idea, I'd suggest reading around a little bit about it. You may, however, find this FAQ useful.

PissedChicken

thanks

Figment

Downtime wrote:

A) There is no such word as copywrite so everyone is presuming you mean copyright.

You must publish it or make it available to the public to have it copyrighted

C) You might find a publisher here http://www.irishreader.com/Pubs/Pubs.htm but there is no comic publisher in Ireland.

is not correct. All you need to do is create something and it is automaticly copyright to you. You dont have to do anything with it.

However, if it ever came to a courtcase you will need to prove in some way that you are the owner of the copyright.

You cannot copyright an idea only the producable form of the idea.

Figment

These might be of use.
http://www.protectmywork.com/
http://www.icreateditfirst.com/ecom/Welcome.jsp