Simple eBook Question that i can't figure out

You don't need a copyright in order to start selling your book, but in order to make sure that no one can rip off your content or resell your book, you should get one as well as write a disclaimer. It would be a shame to have someone try to use your own content on their own site or in their own book.

So you're worried about your copyright but completely uncertain about the copyright of the websites were you took the content from?

Let me ask, did you copy the information from other websites or did you just do some research and get ideas?

I didn't take it that he plagiarized - but you are exactly spot on that if he did, he doesn't need to worry about putting a copyright on it. Be silly to try to copyright stolen material.

Print a copy and mail it to yourself certified mail. Do not open the mail when you get it back - the postmark is your proof it is your work. Then put a copyright page in the book just after the cover as you would see in a physical book. You don't really need to register a copyright as long as you can prove when you wrote it and have a copyright statement at the front of the work. For something 15 pages, I sure wouldn't bother registering a copyright on it.

Disclaimer? Depends upon what the report is about. If you are writing on the subject, I would imagine you should know if you need a disclaimer on it. You might want to actually add a disclaimer to the bottom of your sales page to satisfy the FTC, too, if the subject calls for one.

If you are citing other people's work - that goes in a bibliography or reference page, which you can call a citation page if you prefer. You may have also included footnotes for those - still put them in the bibliography.

Indeed, the Poor Man's Copyright procedure is unlikely to stand as evidence in court, as Mike has pointed out it can easily be faked.

Thank you all for th helpful insight. I now understand that I need a reference page... And a disclaimer anddd a copy right.

My only question is where and how can I write and get a copyright and disclaimer?

Add an extra page for the disclaimer, perhaps after your introduction.

Add the copyright notices in the footer of every page.

i know that but i dont know where to get the copyright from.. is there anywhere i can get it cheap ? and how do i write a disclaimer?

If your question is if you need to have a copyright notice on the book to be
recognized as an author, then the answer is no. You become an author by the very
act of creating a book (or any other author's work for that matter).

By including disclaimer you protect yourself from people intending to hold you
accountable for their losses they blame your information for.

Copyright notice can prevent people thinking that your book is not protected by copyright and that they can use it for their own means.

It is common practice to include copyright notice and disclaimer in any ebook,
even short ones.

Pjkem15, you are getting a lot of partial and misleading info here, even from the Philippine "copywriter." For heaven's sakes, research the exact requirements at U.S. Copyright Office which is the U.S. Copyright Office, and read Copyright Basics.

Last time I looked the deal was this: The copyright does automatically belong to you the minute you originate the work, whether or not you include the notice on your work. The Copyright Office suggests you do show the copyright notice prominently on your material. However, this alone and the process of mailing the document to yourself does not protect your work if you are plagiarized and decide to bring a case to court.

Whoever said above that it "will not stand up in court" is correct, but the Copyright office says that a bit more thoroughly. As I recall that goes something like the court will not recognize any copyright claim if the material has not been registered with the Copyright Office. So this means that if you want to protect yourself from plagiarism via the courts, you must send your work to the U.S. Copyright Office and pay a nominal fee.

As many state above, all of this assumes the work you copyright is yours alone. You can't even make small changes to someone else's work, PLR or not, and call it all your own. The only way to claim a partially edited piece of PLR as your own is to credit the other authors by naming them and using quote marks around their work.

Finally, you can pretty much bet that a lot of material you get online has been plagiarized, and that your material will be plagiarized as well. You can use Copyscape Plagiarism Checker - Duplicate Content Detection Software to test your work and see if it comes up "no results found," meaning it's unique and no part of it originated elsewhere. However, it's been said that copyscape can't be expected to be 100% accurate.

Good luck from a seasoned copywriter.

MBDirect

What program do you make eBooks in? Just add a clause in there just in case.

copyright and disclaimer required yes just google generic disclaimer and generic copyright and you will find free templates for these EASY PEASY

Copyright is not a legal requirement and it is nothing you need to worry about when selling your ebook.

However, when it comes to taking other people's content you need to check whether it is copyrighted or not.

IF it is then you need to rewrite it entirely. IF it is not, then you are all good.

Just remember, if you don't want your ebook to be shared all over the place, then copyright is a good idea.

I would create both a disclaimer and a copyright.

Thanks everybody for all the help! I am set and ready to launch my eBook pretty soon. I just have to get it copyrighted and that's it. You all helped so much!

Thanks again,
Pete

Sounds like you're in a mess. If you wrote it and it is your own original work, then affix a copyright statement. However, in that case, even if you didn't, the work would still be subject to copyright protection, such as it is.

If however, you have pinched somebody else's work - even if you have written it in your own words - you could be on dangerous ground and a copyright and/or a disclaimer need not make one jot of difference.

Will