Okay, okay, okay. i promise I don't mean to be negative, but it really is a myth. An easy-to-find one, granted, but so are flying saucers and alligators in the sewers...
According to a local IP lawyer that donated 5 minutes to talk to me, the issue would first be whether your sealed envelope could be admitted as evidence in the first place. To do so you would have to prove:
a) In order to testify to the integrity of the package, you will have to prove that it was constantly under your *control*. Once you hand it to the employee in the post office, it is out of your control, and doesn't return to your control until you sign for it and pick it up. This negates your ability to testify to the integrity of the contents of the package, and makes the package's seal a non-issue.
In a copyright case you aren't there to prove possession, or even authorship, you are there to prove *ownership* of the copyright. Depending on the opposing party's evidence, it may not even matter that you possessed the item at that given time. In order to prove someone infringed your copyright, you have to prove they had access to the work, and therefore possession was possible. If possession of the work isn't in question, and possession doesn't prove authorship or ownership, then you aren't gonna bring up the envelope as evidence.
c) A postmark, even registered mail, makes no claim as to reliability of the package's seal. If you have ever received a broken item or ripped envelope in the mail, you know they aren't liable for the integrity of the mail. Registered mail and other such stickers can be scanned, reprinted, and reapplied to other envelopes. Such will not grant any credence to a claim that a particular item was *in* the package, only that a particular package at a particular weight went from point A to point B and was picked up by a particular person. That is all the postal service can attest to, and all that their documents can prove.
He stated that if his client brought such a package to him for a copyright case, he'd tell them to leave it at home.
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I have emailed the US copyright office about it and haven't heard back, yet. When I do my Ebay stuff I'll ask at the post office.
Sadly, he was very, very dubious about our particular artform. You really don't wanna know what he thought our chances would be if we needed to proceed against someone legally, and I won't post the reasons, since someone reading this could use them against us. Depressing, though.
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Here are a few other blurbs from around the net so you won't have to rely my heresay.
http://www.riger.com/pdfs/advertising/copyright.pdf
"The so-called “poor man ’s copyright ”—mailing a copy of your work to yourself to obtain a postage date —is not adequate to secure registration,and cannot be used in a court of law to support a case of copyright infringement."
http://screenwritersguild.org/copyright.htm
"Do not mail your script to yourself (the poor man's copyright) and expect to be protected. This is extremely foolish and offers very little, if any, protection in a court of law. "
http://www.music-law.com/copyright.html
"If you had to go to court, you could give the unopened tape to the judge and prove when you created the work. This procedure, however, does not afford any legal protection. I never recommend this route to bands."
http://www.musicindustrylaw.com/copyright.htm
"...sealed and postmarked envelope containing the song as proof of the date of your copyright authorship. From a practical perspective, it is a pretty pointless exercise."
http://bellsouthpwp.net/t/b/tbritton/Bizboook.html#registering
"...if the matter ever did get to court, rest assured that the first thing that will come out of the opposing lawyers mouth will be a challenge for you to prove CONTROL over that envelope – that is, that in no-way could someone have steamed open the envelope, altered its contents, and resealed it. Not even someone at the Post Office!! This challenge has shot down case after case. "
The best description I heard was here:
http://www.eszine.com/index.cfm?DocID=87
"However, after studying copyright law, I cannot find any reason to do this unless you're a) bored or
eager to support the post office. Here's why:
-The post mark is not prima facie evidence. You can forge a postmark, or you can send an empty envelope in the mail and then fill it later. You're going to need a damn good lawyer to prove this one. But you won't have a damn good lawyer because:
-If you're too cheap to register your copyright, you're too cheap to hire a lawyer. Forget about trying to claim attorneys' fees; your copyright had to be registered before the infringement occurred. But none of this matters since:
-You need to register your copyright before going to trial. So what good did your CD in your envelope do besides collect dust?
Poor man's copyright is not "better than nothing," it's the same as nothing. Worse, it is a waste of time and money. I have yet to find an instance where it was used as evidence, let alone even allowed to come to trial. Case closed"
