So for the past couple of months I’ve been working on a project and almost have a short complete, and was thinking about turning it into a sort of, online mini series. But I wanted to pick people’s brains about Copyright, as I can’t afford to legally Copyright my work; so how would you go about protecting something like this? Is it possible to fully protect your work? Or will there always be risks?
I would look into some kind of Creative Commons license; more info can be found at Creative Commons Licenses
Any Berne Convention compliant nation observes automatic copyright. This means for the most part, as long as you possess a date sealed copy of your original works from a trusted source, to prove the date of your original work’s conception, it should be protected on some level.
I often hear artists on a budget often go with the method of sending themselves their own creations via the national mail service, so they may obtain a government stamped glued shut copy of their works. If you do this, send yourself multiple copies just to be on the safe side, since your protection is only as good as the glue that holds the envelope shut.
That being said, formal copyright registration may allow additional benefits. I’m not entirely sure what those should be unfortunately so you may wish to look into the manner further. Most particularly, the right to sue for damages may be amongst them. Unfortunately I’m not too well versed in this manner since my usual interest with copyright usually pertains to discussing the fuzzy borders of what constitutes infringement (casually).