In a previous post we mentioned that formally registering your copyright for a work you’ve created with the US Copyright Office (or equivalent, in other relevant jurisdictions) makes sound business sense - especially if there’s any possibility that you’ll have to defend that copyright against impostors in court.
Interestingly, a quick online search will reveal that there are many other services out there offering to do all the work of registering the copyright with the US Copyright Office on your behalf - for a fee. But be careful! Check out what you will actually receive for your money before you pay a single cent.
In addition, some of these companies market themselves as alternatives to the US Copyright Office and imply that securely registering your documents with their storage system offers almost equivalent legal protection.
Caveat Emptor! This protection is by no means certain and you should carefully evaluate these claims by talking to your own legal representatives before signing up with copyright registration in mind.
It may also be worth to talking to some of their customers who’ve had to fight copyright infringement law suits and find out exactly how useful the 3rd party service turned out to be.
With the above in mind let’s take a brief look at five businesses operating in these areas.
Website: https://www.wgawregistry.org/webrss/
1) Writers Guild of America, West was extablished in 1927 and describes itself as:
“home to more than 9,500 of Hollywood’s leading TV and screenwriters, but you do not need to be a WGAW member to use this vital Guild service. Registration can be used as a supplement to a U.S. copyright, and it’s fast, easy and convenient to register online.”
Website: http://www.worldwideocr.com/
2) This is the “Worldwide Online Creators Registry” which, according to its Contact page, is based in Canada. Using their ‘SEAL’ service they aim to provide what they refer to as “instant and highly effective third party evidence of ownership in minutes.”
The testimonials page shows a number of clients from the music and video entertainment worlds.
Website: http://www.dulynoted.co.uk/
3) This United Kingdom-registered company is based in London and, to paraphrase their copy, was started by creatives for creatives. Wow! People earning a living creatively - we’re sure they’d feel right at home with our very own ‘ZOOGGIE the Buffer Egg’!
In addition to offering an online third party copyright registration service, they also help creatives with data backup and even company registration services.
Website: http://www.protectrite.com/
4) Back in California, we find ‘Protectrite’ whose modus operandi is to:
“Instantly establish the date and time-of-creation of all your files,
including screenplays, proposals, Web pages, treatments, inventions,
lyrics and ideas.”
It’s instructive to study the FAQ on this site as they candidly describe the basic difference between officially registering your copyright with the US Copyright office compared to using Protectrite or their competitors.
Website: http://www.clickandcopyright.com/
5) Here’s a company who will do the actual filing of your copyright registration with the US Copyright office. They can do individual submissions or multiple (based on an annual plan) which may be convenient for people who are very creative.
As their business model is to go direct to the government’s copyright office, you can learn a lot about the pros and cons of this approach versus the third party registration one by carefully reading their FAQs and online articles.
Sincerely GollyGoose Team
