How do you Copyright one of your stories on here? - Comments

v. I'm a member of other forums where it is considered polite to write a disclaimer such as "This piece is fictional and all characters involved are of no creation of my own." I think it's there in case someone does take what you're writing as something of truth, and not for copyright reasons.

Also, as a quick afternote, people here seem to think that having an enormous disclaimer somehow makes their writing more professional. It really doesn't. Nothing is less professional than having a huge, unnecessary disclaimer (eg. 'all characters are original and don't steal, etc.') on a public website where your work is clearly your own, and clearly not intended for other people to take. All this does is give the impression that you don't understand how people, the law and the internet work. You would be better off not putting a disclaimer at all- copyright protects you here without one.

Copyright is legally automatic when you create original material and don't post it with an implied or express license for others to use. You do not need to do anything extra to make your material copyright. There is no legal process to be followed, and nothing to be filed. If you wanted to, you could put a disclaimer on your stories saying that you reserve all rights, but realistically, it's not going to stop anyone who wants to steal from you on the internet.

This being said, I think most people on Mibba are way more scared of theft than they need to be. Unless you are at publishable standard and writing something marketable, nobody stands to make money by stealing from you. Stealing amongst amateurs is rare, and the worst that can happen is that someone will post your work elsewhere without acknowledgement. If you have a verifiable earlier copy, they can't make money off it, and you could publically expose them if you wanted to.

Like Airi. says, a small risk of plagiarism is just part and parcel of being on the internet, especially on a public webpage. The fact that you have legally enforceable rights is unlikely to stop somebody who really wants to from stealing your work. You can only bank on the fact that they probably won't.

If you want, you can find the copyright symbol in a number of my stories.
The one that's easiest to find would be the one in Desolation Row.
Just copy and paste and put it in the summary of your story, exactly as Airi said.

When you post anything online, there is a risk of it getting stolen. That's just the risk you take upon choosing to post online. There's no surefire way to assure no one will plagiarize your story, the best you can do is put in your story summary the copyright symbol followed by your username and/or actual name. I believe that's the only way to show copyright on mibba.