Stolen jokes
I do stand-up comedy in smaller venues. Several of my shows have been taped and are on a national web site. I was watchinga TV show the other day and saw several of my jokes in the script, but they were slightly modified. The show was aired about eight months after my jokes appeared on the web.
What would be involved in trying to prove someone stole my jokes? Could they claim they simply thought up the same jokes and had never seen mine?
Re: Stolen jokes
Yes. Mailing anything to yourself is a myth and has extremely little to no legal weight in court. The only available way to file a copyright lawsuit and to avail yourself to the federal courts is by having a federally registered copyright with the United States Copyright Office.
With that said however, the landscape for copyrights and/or protection of jokes is a murky one. Simple one-liners and the like are difficult to protect via copyright. If you are using a slogan that identifies you, like the Get er done guy, that may be protected via trademark.
Re: Stolen jokes
Yes. Mailing anything to yourself is a myth and has extremely little to no legal weight in court. The only available way to file a copyright lawsuit and to avail yourself to the federal courts is by having a federally registered copyright with the United States Copyright Office.
With that said however, the landscape for copyrights and/or protection of jokes is a murky one. Simple one-liners and the like are difficult to protect via copyright. If you are using a slogan that identifies you, like the Get er done guy, that may be protected via trademark.
Re: Stolen jokes
Yes. Mailing anything to yourself is a myth and has extremely little to no legal weight in court. The only available way to file a copyright lawsuit and to avail yourself to the federal courts is by having a federally registered copyright with the United States Copyright Office.
With that said however, the landscape for copyrights and/or protection of jokes is a murky one. Simple one-liners and the like are difficult to protect via copyright. If you are using a slogan that identifies you, like the Get er done guy, that may be protected via trademark.
Re: Stolen jokes
Yes. Mailing anything to yourself is a myth and has extremely little to no legal weight in court. The only available way to file a copyright lawsuit and to avail yourself to the federal courts is by having a federally registered copyright with the United States Copyright Office.
With that said however, the landscape for copyrights and/or protection of jokes is a murky one. Simple one-liners and the like are difficult to protect via copyright. If you are using a slogan that identifies you, like the Get er done guy, that may be protected via trademark.
