Can I use the My Free Copyright registration in a court of law?

My Free Copyright provides a verifiable historical public record associating the copyright, you and its terms of use. This can be used in a court of law to prove you were the creator of the copyright from the time of registration forward.

How can you prove the copyright registration?

The date of registration, the copyright file or text, and their association to you constitute the proof of registration. The registration email is one of the critical components of the proof. The registration email along with the My Free Copyright logs and public record provide an indisputable transaction between you and My Free Copyright. You must keep the registration email to prove this transaction.

The registration email also contains metadata, which is in every email, and shows a date stamp and signature of every server through which the email was sent. The date stamp in the email, matched with the My Free Copyright logs and public record prove the transaction occurred at the recorded date and time. The fingerprint contained in the email proves the copyright, and the email account used for the registration along with your name on record proves that you registered the copyright.

So how do I prove the actual copyright file or text is what I registered?

My Free Copyright captures a digital fingerprint of the copyright during registration and records it in the registration email, public record and logs. In order to verify the fingerprint, the same file used to register with My Free Copyright will have to be used. You can then prove the fingerprint by submitting the copyright to the My Free Copyright verify copyright service. For your convenience, My Free Copyright provides an inexpensive way to backup the same file used during registration with the Safety Deposit service.

Once the actual file or text has been proven by the registration fingerprint, you can submit it as evidence in a court. Depending on the format for the copyright, the court can listen, watch, view or read it and decide if a copyright infringement exists.

Disclaimer: My Free Copyright is not a law firm and suggests that you seek the advice of a professional in your jurisdiction to see what other options are available for you beyond a date registration with My Free Copyright.

Add comment January 15th, 2007