"I was watching the show "Urban Legends" on Bio channel the other night and saw that they used a story ... to happen, so I can get in contact with their lawyers... What would others around here do, in my situation?"
I think your urban legend story is a very interesting case.
You definitely wrote it, and so have a copyright on it. But you also wrote it originally for distribution to newsgroups, which I think introduces some ambiguities.Take this with a grain of non-lawyerly salt, as IANAL. But newsgroups are not the same as e-mail and they're not the same as a web site. If you published first to a website, I think your work would be treated much as any published work, and the copyright office would recognize your first date of creation as the date it appeared on your web page, and people would have to pay you to re-use the story. In other words, a website is treated sort like a newspaper.
If, however, you had "published" your story by sending in to some individual as e-mail, you would own the copyright but the recipient of the e-mail would own their copy of your work, and would (generally) be free to use it as they wish. That's why when you read the published letters of some famous author they often contain the reply letters from their correspondents: because the famous author owns the copy of the letter sent to them.
So, when something is published on a newsgroup, is it more like being published on a web page or more like being sent out to a set of recipients as a sort of group e-mail? If the latter, then I think you lose some rights. But I suspect that this has never been fully addressed by the copyright office and/or the courts. And maybe I'm completely wrong, because, of course, IANYL or anyone else's lawyer either.
But one thing I do know is that if you do want to claim copyright, then you must defend your copyright when you see it violated. Nothing says you don't own a copyright like watching passively as somebody copies your work. If you feel someone has tread on your ownership and you sit around waiting for them to sue *you*, it will appear to the courts that you did not feel a violation took place.
At the very least I would draft a letter of complaint to the Bio Channel saying that your material was used without credit or compensation. Put them on notice that there are ownership issues.
Alan Brooks
A with an Underwood
Drop-kick me Jesus...
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