How to Copyright a Poem

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Laura, and today I'm going to talk with you about how to copyright a poem. I'm going to give you some elements for the poor man's copyright, which is basically to get a hold of a regular manila envelope, and to address it to yourself. The day that you finish the poem to your liking, and you want it to be copyrighted, you're going to print it off and put it in to your envelope. You're going to seal it, and you're going to date the, the date that you sent this to yourself on the inside, and of course, it's also going to be dated when I re-send it. And so you're going to send this to yourself, and you're not going to open it. This will serve as proof in court that you mailed this to yourself on the day that you said you did, and that this is your work. Today, there are really not a whole lot of ways to safe yourself from being ripped off, other than doing that, and also maybe registering it. But you can also just use the copyright symbol, and put that next to your, your particular poem, or your, the end of your work, or in the very title page of your play, or what ever you're doing, and then that way that serves as a deterrent for people who want to steal your stuff. But really, there's no way for someone to pretend as though they did what you have done if you have it on your computer, and you have sent it to yourself in this, sort of hard copy format. So that is the way to copyright a poem."