Hi this is my very first post here... I hope it's fine to post here.

So, I did a software as my final project in order to get my degree in audio Technics. I would Like to get the copyright of this soft so I can sell it or give it away for free or whatever without had the risk of somebody gets credit for what I did.

Did you guys know what to do in order to get the copyright of a software?

Thank you

Start with your country's office of patents.

Copyright comes automatically upon creation & publishment:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_convention
This convention just states that whoever came first owns it. But in the real world it's hard to protect intellectual property.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property
And then patents may be the solution.

Also study the terms & conditions of your school, or ask a teacher/professor. There's a chance anything created for an institution becomes property of that institution, depending on the contract.

You are about that the conditions of the school, but, the academic coordinator was the one who advice me to copyright of patent this soft.

I did some research in my country's office of patents. And as far as they explain, I need to re-patent every change I do in the software (meaning, I had to pay around $200 for every change I made...

There's a massive difference between a patent (an invention) and copyright (a creative work).

Generally copyright is automatic on creation as posted above, and the only issue is being able to prove that you created it. A good start would be not to give out your source code and then to register your work.

You might get better advice if you tell us where you are from, because IP laws are different all over the world. There's no point someone telling you what to do in the US only for you to find out that the US copyright office isn't interested in dealing with someone from Burundi.

The same applies to patents - the EPO excludes computer programs from being patentable, for example.

Oh sorry! I'm from Perú

and I now here there's no any software that do what I programmed.

Hehe, this so stressful

A quick google search reveals:

Cómo se obtiene la protección?
En el caso particular del derecho de autor, la protección se obtiene de manera automática con la creación y no se encuentra sujeta a formalidad alguna. La propiedad industrial, en cambio, sí requiere el registro ante la autoridad competente para garantizar la protección.

http://www.deperu.com/abc/marcas-y-patentes/518/derecho-de-a utor-preguntas-frecuentes


I have abosultely no idea if Peru allows software patents


If you think that the software is capable of making you some money, you probably want to talk to a local IP lawyer who will be able to answer your questions.

I'm convinced to apply for the author rights(I know the papers and cost, the $200 I said)

But I don't know if this will help me in the cloud world... I mean, One thing is Perú, other US, other German...and so...

Most countries have agreements that honour copyright of other countries, but I have no idea how Peru fits in with this. Again, you probably want to ask a local IP lawyer. Peru is a bit "exotic", I've no idea how many Peruvians there are on KVR and I'd doubt that a high percentage of them know the intricacies of IP law.

Edit: here's a PDF from the US copuright office about treaties and other countries. It's obviously US-centric but Peru is listed and might give you something to start with:
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ38a.pdf

You can probably research yourself which countries have signed what treaties etc. Though I'd still recommend getting professional advice before spending the $200.

Thanks for the doc!

I'm looking for a lawyer here that knows or work on the software copyright side, but It's kind of difficult

If you do a risk assessment of what in reality is a threat:

Scenario 1: someone has the same idea as you (doesn't even need to "borrow" it from you, although not ruled out), builds his own implementation, is very succesful at marketing it, sells it at a lower price with better support, so is getting your customers.

Scenario 2: you build a good implementation of your idea and publish it. Some lowlife cracks the copy protection and puts it on a torrent network, making your sales suddenly drop by 50%.

What scenario you think is more probable? And how can you defend yourself against it? Do think about it...

Me thinks the risks on scenario 1, which truely deals about the IP, is neglectable compared to that of scenario 2. And since the market is open, it takes far more than just a good idea to make it a succes.

Yeap, you are right.

But well, give the nature of my little soft, the target of it will be sound schools. Or sound engineering students.

I don't plant to get rich with this, but to get some ground floor because I kind of liked the experience of develop sound/music software.