How IP.com Supports Copyrights
In the real world you create work on a regular and ongoing basis. However, it typically is not created in a single sitting, nor is it written from beginning to end without editing and changing. The fact is your work is dynamic and evolves over time. Outside factors influence your work, causing you to make edits, changes and wholesale replacements of large parts of it. This complicates decisions as to when it might be appropriate or valuable to register your copyright.
Further, because most work is done electronically, you have the added burden of proving what you wrote (or created) and when you wrote it in order to establish your copyrights for unregistered material…which could represent the bulk of what you do.
IP.com created two legal safeguarding solutions specifically to help you prove the date and content of your creative work so as to ensure you will be able to leverage your copyright protection for that work. These affordable products are designed to legally safeguard your work in the context of the real world…the way you live and work. Legal safeguarding is the process of creating a digital fingerprint and date-stamp of your work, then registering that fingerprint into the public domain as public evidence of your work and thus your copyright proof. The actual creative work is never exposed to others so your privacy is ensured while you gain this valuable means of proving what you wrote and when you wrote it.
The first product is the Legal Safeguarding Agent (LSA). The LSA is a small software agent that sits on your desktop. You can direct the agent to examine specific folders and/or file types on a regular basis. When it does, the agent will determine if files are new or have been changed since the last execution. If so, it will create an archive copy of the file along with a digital fingerprint and date-stamp. The fingerprint and date-stamp (not the document itself) are automatically sent to IP.com for registration and publication. The document and the archive of the document all remain on the users desktop. This provides maximum privacy as your documents never leave your possession. It also provides the best real-world solution to writers who create work on a regular basis, and who might change, edit or revise that work on a frequent basis. The agent can also be run manually to protect specific versions of work that you might be sending out to editors or reviewers. If the archive option is turned on, it also ceates a version control-like mechanism that ensures you have multiple versions of your work saved without renaming the work each time (the agent takes care of that foryou as it creates the archive).
The second product is the Creative Registry. The Creative Registry is an online database which allows the user to upload documents for safeguarding and safekeeping. Users can log on to the IP.com Creative Registry and upload individual documents to the Registry. When they do, they are provided a Certificate of Authenticity (CoA) which includes the document fingerprint and upload date information. The user can then use the CoA to retrieve the document in the future in order to prove the authenticity of their work. Alternatively, they can use their original document to prove their work by simply re-fingerprinting that document for a legal authority. When the document reproduces the same fingerprint (which it will if it has not been changed) as registered with IP.com they will have demonstrated the original date of their work and the fact that the content has not been changed (IP.com will freely confirm the registration information for any fingerprint. i.e. the date it was recorded by IP.com, via our website) Both of the above solutions ensure that you can prove what you wrote (or created) and when, thus ensuring that you will be able to establish when your copyright protection for a specific piece of work went into effect.
The Legal Safeguarding Agent is therefore a better solution for regular use where the volume of documents or records protected could be relatively high and storing the records on the user machine is desirable or at least not a problem (do you back up your work?). The Creative Registry is a better solution for low volume work or where the user wants to have the document stored by a trusted third party.
Both solutions help you prove the date and content of your work, irrefutably. Both solutions help ensure you can enjoy the protection of US copyright laws without the authenticity of your work being questioned.
Protecting your “work in progress” is an excellent idea and allows you to send it to others for comment, review or consideration, without fear that somehow they will steal your work and present it as their own. Using IP.com legal safeguarding solutions, you will always be able to prove that you had the work prior to the time it was shared. And when it comes time to publish or sell your work, or otherwise memorialize it in a final way, you can always register the final work with the Library of Congress.
Further, because most work is done electronically, you have the added burden of proving what you wrote (or created) and when you wrote it in order to establish your copyrights for unregistered material…which could represent the bulk of what you do.
IP.com created two legal safeguarding solutions specifically to help you prove the date and content of your creative work so as to ensure you will be able to leverage your copyright protection for that work. These affordable products are designed to legally safeguard your work in the context of the real world…the way you live and work. Legal safeguarding is the process of creating a digital fingerprint and date-stamp of your work, then registering that fingerprint into the public domain as public evidence of your work and thus your copyright proof. The actual creative work is never exposed to others so your privacy is ensured while you gain this valuable means of proving what you wrote and when you wrote it.
The first product is the Legal Safeguarding Agent (LSA). The LSA is a small software agent that sits on your desktop. You can direct the agent to examine specific folders and/or file types on a regular basis. When it does, the agent will determine if files are new or have been changed since the last execution. If so, it will create an archive copy of the file along with a digital fingerprint and date-stamp. The fingerprint and date-stamp (not the document itself) are automatically sent to IP.com for registration and publication. The document and the archive of the document all remain on the users desktop. This provides maximum privacy as your documents never leave your possession. It also provides the best real-world solution to writers who create work on a regular basis, and who might change, edit or revise that work on a frequent basis. The agent can also be run manually to protect specific versions of work that you might be sending out to editors or reviewers. If the archive option is turned on, it also ceates a version control-like mechanism that ensures you have multiple versions of your work saved without renaming the work each time (the agent takes care of that foryou as it creates the archive).
The second product is the Creative Registry. The Creative Registry is an online database which allows the user to upload documents for safeguarding and safekeeping. Users can log on to the IP.com Creative Registry and upload individual documents to the Registry. When they do, they are provided a Certificate of Authenticity (CoA) which includes the document fingerprint and upload date information. The user can then use the CoA to retrieve the document in the future in order to prove the authenticity of their work. Alternatively, they can use their original document to prove their work by simply re-fingerprinting that document for a legal authority. When the document reproduces the same fingerprint (which it will if it has not been changed) as registered with IP.com they will have demonstrated the original date of their work and the fact that the content has not been changed (IP.com will freely confirm the registration information for any fingerprint. i.e. the date it was recorded by IP.com, via our website) Both of the above solutions ensure that you can prove what you wrote (or created) and when, thus ensuring that you will be able to establish when your copyright protection for a specific piece of work went into effect.
The Legal Safeguarding Agent is therefore a better solution for regular use where the volume of documents or records protected could be relatively high and storing the records on the user machine is desirable or at least not a problem (do you back up your work?). The Creative Registry is a better solution for low volume work or where the user wants to have the document stored by a trusted third party.
Both solutions help you prove the date and content of your work, irrefutably. Both solutions help ensure you can enjoy the protection of US copyright laws without the authenticity of your work being questioned.
Protecting your “work in progress” is an excellent idea and allows you to send it to others for comment, review or consideration, without fear that somehow they will steal your work and present it as their own. Using IP.com legal safeguarding solutions, you will always be able to prove that you had the work prior to the time it was shared. And when it comes time to publish or sell your work, or otherwise memorialize it in a final way, you can always register the final work with the Library of Congress.
