CALGARY, Jan. 19 — World Wide Online Creator's Registry Inc. has created the "poor man's copyright" by offering an inexpensive on-line method of date-stamping and redundantly archiving intellectual property.
Date-stamping is the second thing a writer, inventor or other creator should do after first coming up with an idea, the company said, in case an idea ever needs to be protected from infringement and proved who had the idea first. Although copyright is, in theory, automatic, proof of authorship is necessary for court action.
In Canada, filing a copyright at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office costs $50 (for on-line registration) or $65, and can take several weeks. In the United States it costs $30 to file a copyright and, due to a backlog, can take several months.
The process of date-stamping an idea and sending it to yourself by registered mail is often referred to as the "poor man's copyright." WorldWideOCR.com takes the same concept but utilizes real-time on-line software to register the users' ideas in any digital file format. Instead of an envelope, there are SSL servers, 128-bit encryption, and redundant archiving — all in conformance with a group of credible on-line third-party processing partners (including First Data Loan Company, Canada, Assurebuy, Inc., VISA, and Toronto Dominion Canada Trust.
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