What is a poor mans copyright?
A person seeks copyright protection to legally ensure control of a piece of intellectual property. With advancements in technology and the creation of new forms of intellectual property, copyright law has had to evolve to adequately protect individuals from infringement. In the past, authors would send copies of their work to themselves and leave the packages unopened. This practice established a date and general time of creation and possession. When this practice of “poor man’s copyrighting” began, society presented fewer challenges to authors and artists. Simply mailing a copy of the work served the purpose of establishing a copyright.
This is the process of mailing your intellectual property to yourself and using the date on the postmark to verify the date that you created that specific piece of intellectual property. This is not a sufficient way to copyright your work, as there is no language in US copyright law that supports the practice of Poor Man’s Copyright. The only way to get full legal protection for your intellectual property is by registering your copyright with the US Copyright Office.
