Where credit is due. (OP-ED).(copyright proposal for "Acts of God")

Free Inquiry, December, 2002 by Devries, Steven

I've just put the final touches on the second draft of a play that Center for Inquiry--Metro New York was to produce in November, and I feel comfortable enough with the material finally to copyright it. U.S. law copyrights a work the moment it is created, so technically my piece is already protected. But for that extra assurance, I'll pay $30 to have it registered at the U.S. Copyright Office. That way if some other burgeoning playwright comes out with a script suspiciously similar to mine, I have it on record that mine was indeed the original.

If anything, copyrights ensure that those who toil and labor over a work are given the proper recognition for their efforts. No one likes it when a person wrongly benefits from another person's talent. And this is...

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