Disclaimer: This article is not to be construed as providing legal advice and is provided only as a repository of online information gleaned from sources cited within. Don’t blame me if someone steals your million-dollar post about this afternoon’s open-faced Reuben. All statements are relating to U.S. Copyright Law.
With the impending launch of the Steemit Fiction Trail @SFT and the development of the associated, soon-to-be-live website, we over at the Fiction Workshop are faced with the question of who owns the rights to work we publish on Steemit and/or is collected at said library. I volunteered to traverse the digital plains, seeking this knowledge on behalf of my beloved fellow writers. And since we’re all such terrific people (seriously, if you write fiction get the hell over there now!) I’m going to go ahead and share what I’ve found after what seems like hours - but was more like minutes - of online research.
All hail my mad google skillz!
OMG! Did I just give Steemit the rights to my masterpiece?
The first concern I’d like to address is whether Steemit, itself, takes any sort of ownership of our work, and from everything I’ve read between the White Paper and the actual Terms of Service, I can see nowhere at all that we grant Steemit Inc. any ownership over our work. There is a place that makes clear any trademarked images, logos, etc. posted on Steemit remain the property of whoever owns them. There is a place that indicates any feedback sent to Steemit becomes their property. And there is a section protecting the actual Steemit logos and name from infringement, but nothing at all granting Steemit any ownership over content posted in your blog.
What Steemit does do, is provide a verifiable, permanent “fixation” of your content. As I’ll explain in the next section, this is all it takes to make your original creation 100% yours. Which is kind of an awesome big deal when you’ve worked so damned hard on photographing that open-faced Reuben.
Mine, all miiiiine!
Whew! I’d better hire an attorney to properly protect my masterpiece, then-
Stop right there! I love your enthusiasm, and I’m sure that open-faced-Reuben photo spread would more than cover your lawyer’s fees - even after paying for the launch of your new Reuben-only sandwich club in New York City – but don’t get ahead of yourself.
It just so happens, that according to copyright law, the very second that photo was snapped (or blog typed, or song recorded, or pig-raccoon hybrid birthed) it became your property and protected under copyright law without any other action on your part. The key is in “fixing” your creation. Remember way back like two paragraphs ago when I said Steemit provides a permanent “fixation” of your content? Well, content is “fixed” when it stops being an idea in your head and is represented in some way out here in the real world where other people can attest it existed. Just because @Rhondak imagines creating a pig-raccoon hybrid, that is not enough to claim @gmuxx ‘stole’ her idea if a pig-raccoon hybrid attacks Gabe in Part 2 of Virtual Mortality.
Which would be AWESOME!
Those bastards at UltraBigCorp used my Reuben pic on their menu! I’m going to own their asses!
Well… Not quite. See, you own your pic and if UltraBigCorp used it without your permission, you do have recourse. But it’s limited to recovering provable loss of profit as well as any of their profits directly attributable to the use of the pic. Enjoy watching their UltraBigFirm lawyers argue that really any pic of a Reuben would have done and the use of your pic could only have boosted sales by maybe $3.50 worldwide. For a swift education in how UltraBigMedia’s UltraBigFirms deal with pissants like even really popular YouTubers, check out how Fox and Glee treated Jonathan Coulton after blatantly stealing his cover of “Baby got Back.”
Speaking of lawyers, you won’t even be able to recoup legal fees from suing the bastards at UltraBigCorp after they ride your Reuben pic to stratospheric Q4 gains. That’s right: You’ll be responsible for paying some lawyer from ShittyLittleFirm, who likely specializes in divorce negotiations, around $600 an hour to sue for your $3.50 back. Which is exactly why it nearly never happens, and Jonathan Coulton was the first to raise a stink even though Glee has a long, consequence-free history of stealing YouTubers’ shit without so much as a “by-your-leave” or a shout out in the credits.
If you're gonna use me, at least some cab fare, geez.
I’m done posting! I’d rather no one ever experience the glory of this Reuben, than that UltraBigCorp profit from it!
All hope is not lost. What most people think of as ‘copyrighting’ is really the registration of copyright. If your work has been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office before an infringement begins, you are entitled to not only attorney fees, but also statutory (aka “kick to the jimmies”) damages, which basically means “way more money than you actually lost in the theft, calculated to deter future theft.”
The standard registration fee is $35-
I can’t pay $35 per pic! I’ll never buy my private island at that rate!
-Okay, okay, just hear me out. The rules for online content are a little different. You can register a blog or website and it will cover all of the information “fixed” on the site as of the date of registration.
You also have a three-month “grace period” for registration. So you can re-register your blog once every 3 months and enjoy all of the protection you would have had if you registered each individual Reuben pic you ever posted.
So TL;DR: Steemit doesn’t own your stuff, you copyrighted it just by fixing it in some tangible medium, and registering that copyright gives you way better financial recourse against infringement. Since you can register your blog’s copyright for around the cost of an open faced Reuben and coffee each month, I highly recommend. Get started here today!
If you found this helpful, you might also enjoy Part 1 – The Writer’s Guide to Getting some Action and Part 2 - Show me yours, I'll Show you Mine
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