Copyright...

Bobblun

I have a question for those with experience in copyright. My friend and I are putting together a web-comic, which is still in the production phase. Unfortunately neither of us are lawyers or have any experience with copyright. Though we do not plan on selling the comic, we want to reserve the right to sell it in the future if there becomes a demand for it. My question is do I need to talk to a lawyer who specializes in the copyright law, or are there other options out there that are more economical?

I analogize in advance for the poor sentence structure, I was in a hurry.

Jason

Your work is copyrighted as soon as it is made. You don't need to do anything special. It has de facto protection.

Bobblun

Your work is copyrighted as soon as it is made. You don't need to do anything special. It has de facto protection.

I was aware of de facto. What I'm trying to do is allow people to do whatever they want with it as long as they don't make money. But still allow me the right to make money from it in the future for example a t-shirt, a comic book or the like.

Nuri

Fundamentals of Copyright #1: High-Level Overview of Copyright

This and the subsequent episodes about copyright may be of some interest to you.
Life of a Law Student Podcast

Also, putting a Creative Commons license on it doesn't preclude you from giving other (commercial) licenses later. It just gives away certain rights, depending on which one you chose. I'm a fan of non-commercial, as it reserves all commercial rights for you.

Rym

What I'm trying to do is allow people to do whatever they want with it as long as they don't make money. But still allow me the right to make money from it in the future for example a t-shirt, a comic book or the like.

I am not a lawyer. However, the Creative Commons noncommercial license would do what you want as far as I can tell.

Norvu

Right, well I suggest you get a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike license, as this will tell people what you allow and do not allow right away without them having to ask you every time.

You will have to register your work with the copyright office to enforce your copyright legally, but most of the time you won't have to, unless you're unfortunate.

Bobblun

Thank you all very much for the help. I will do some more research with the information you have provided. And if I have any more questions I will post them here.

Thanks again.

Nuri

You will have to register your work with the copyright office to enforce your copyright legally, but most of the time you won't have to, unless you're unfortunate.

That's not true...it just makes it much easier, and will also make it easier to get a lawyer to take your case. Our international copyright treaties forbid us from requiring registration to hold legal copyright.