Questions with a legal angle

As writers, we can become very protective of our work. Are we justified, or paranoid? And what can we do about it?

 Copyright protection

My web articles were stolen

 How to protect my ideas from thieves

Can I kill real people off in fiction?

I'm not sure what I do about copy right, so if you could please assist me I'd really be grateful.

You don't have to do anything about copyright. Under Australian law, it is generally held that the author of a work holds copyright automatically. There are many exceptions: for instance, a ghost writer or someone working on commission does not retain copyright in the work produced.

You can only copyright the expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves. This means that what is protected is the way in which you have created something new. So if you write a new version of Romeo and Juliet, your version is yours, and Shakespeare can't sue you for breach of copyright.

Information sheets are available at the Australian Copy Council website, 
http://www.copyright.org.au/information

In particular, look at the information in 'Ownership of copyright' (G58) and 'Protection of Copyright' (G 84)

How can I stop someone stealing my work? If I send it to an assessor or an agent, they might steal my ideas.

There is not very much chance that you will have problems with people stealing your work. You can't copyright an idea, but you can copyright your own work on an idea. You don't have to do anything for copyright to apply. But please, don't put copyright notices all over a manuscript you are submitting. If you think an editor or agent has to be told not to steal it, don't send it there in the first place.

I have just recently started freelancing for websites. I am mailing today though because I've been put into a very unpleasant situation by a person who placed a job adv on websites all over the web. In the ad , he claims he will pay writers a fee of $ 100 for any accepted articles. I submitted several articles which were posted online on his site. When I asked him for my fee, he said someone would be touch from his US office before the end of the month. That never happened. Also instead of my name against the article the credit read ' From our staff reporter' this was the second time he put my article online without informing me and this case did not even give me credit. 
Is there is any advice you can give me on what to do about this I would be very grateful.

Doing business over the web is always a problem. One way you can prevent the same thing happening again is to send everything in a read-only format so that it cannot easily be copied and pasted. A determined person can still type a version out, but it does limit plagiarism to some extent. As well, send only one article, or a portion of it, and make sure you are paid before sending anything more.

You can also contact Writers Weekly and let them know- they keep an eye out for scams.

Most of all, be aware that you have little recourse to satisfaction for small matters arranged on-line, and be very, very careful what you send, to whom.

You may have to write this lot off to experience.

I'm currently midway writing a fiction novel. One of my characters is Abu Bakir Bashir (currently leader of Jemaah Islamiah in Indonesia as you may well know). The story is set in the future by two years and is about the kidnapping of a little Australian girl in Bali following his assassination. He is the only real life character and his death is pivotal to the chain of events that occur. Could I be subject to litigation basing a real life character in a fiction novel, particularly from a controversial group linked to terrorism? What about using Jemaah Islamiah in the plot?

As far as we know, you are welcome to kill off real characters in fiction as long as you don't libel them. We have read books in which presidents, queens, and the like have died to fit an author's needs. We have also read of writers being subjected to fatwa - witness Salman Rushdie.

Given that your work is set in the future, there is no reason why you couldn't circumvent the problem by positing a new, improved form of Jemaah islamiah with a new leader who fills your needs even better than the current one does. This may not stop you from being pushed under a bus one day, but it should keep you out of law courts at least.

But maybe don't travel through Indonesia for a while.