When you post your story on Wattpad using Advanced Options, there are multiple copyright options that you can select from. Each of the options only applies to the work that you can copyright; if you include song lyrics, lines from books, films or TV shows, or famous people and historical figures, you’re not claiming copyright ownership to them by selecting any of these options.
Selecting copyright language doesn’t register your work with any copyright offices, or transfer copyright ownership to Wattpad (you grant Wattpad some limited licenses when you upload a story or other content). If you want to register it with your country’s copyright office, there are a lot of resources online to help you. You can search for your country’s copyright office through WIPO’s Directory of Intellectual Property Offices at http://www.wipo.int/directory/en/urls.jsp.
The most commonly used licenses are the following:
All Rights Reserved
The copyright owner retains all the rights provided by copyright law, such as distribution, performance, and creation of their work. In some ways, you have total control over your story, but since copyright doesn’t give you a complete monopoly, others can still use your story in certain ways, by including short excerpts in reviews and recs, creating fan art or covers for you, etc.
Public Domain
It’s also known as “No rights reserved”. Technically, putting a work in the public domain in most countries can be a complicated process, but if you select this option, you’re telling everyone that they can use your story for any purpose; they can print it and sell it, they can make a movie out of it, anything they want. If you select this option, you relinquish all copyrights that you hold in the story.
Creative Commons
Creative Commons has shared the text of a number of types of copyright licenses. If you select one, you reserve some of the rights to your story, but you’re also giving the general public some licenses, like the right to translate your story or make a film using your dialogue, or even print it to sell at a fancon. Individuals wanting to collaborate with a writer must go through this route. There are several Creative Commons licenses to suit your needs including Attribution [CC BY], Share Alike [CC BY-SA], No Derivative [CC BY-ND] and Non Commercial [CC BY-NC]. For more information on Creative Commons copyright options, please visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
For more information on permission, specifically the use of other peoples' work, please check out our article: Can I use their work?
We also recommend checking out our Support Bot when looking for quick answers! You can find our bot by clicking on the icon in the bottom right corner of the Help Center (https://support.wattpad.com/hc/en-us), or going to your Settings > Help Center on the app.
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