On Thu, 9 Jul 1998, YN2 Rob Barba wrote:

Lately I have seen a few fanfics with copyright protection. I was wondering
how one goes about copywriting there works. Any information on this is
welcome.

**You can only copyright characters you create.  If you will notice,
characters that are created by say, Rumiko Takahashi or Naoko Takuechi, are
credited to those creators, while characters created by yourself are yours.
 The reason for that is that some fic writers are aspiring writers, and in
some cases, the fanfics are merely testbeds for those selfsame characters.

 
AFAIK, you can't 'copyright' characters at all. You *can* trademark them (a
different area of intellectual property). Copyright applies to the 'concrete
instance': You can copyright a comic, a story, a movie, etc.  You can
trademark a character, a universe, etc. Thus, 'Superman' is a trademark of DC
Comics while 'Superman comic #1' is copyrighted by DC Comics. 

By borrowing the Ranma 1/2 (or any other fictional universe) you tread on
their trademarks pretty much automatically. You only tread on their
copyrights to the extent you borrow the specific work (yes - you can violate
the copyright by 'paraphrasing' or 'translating' it - these are considered
'derivative works'). 

Under the Berne Convention (which both the US and Japan are signatory to),
all copyrightable creative works are 'born copyrighted'. And yes - I can hold
the copyright on a fanfic that treads on someone else's copyrights and/or
trademarks. As a certain US anime company discovered several years ago when
they licensed an anime and stole a fan-sub script to sub-title it. Some
amount of legal fees later, they discovered that the fan-translator *OWNED*
the translation they (the fan translator) had made. They just didn't own the
right to do much of anything with it since it was a derivative of another
copyrighted work. 

In the US, there is no requirement for registration for a trademark (this 
differs from most countries, I believe) - although registration can help 
establish it as being in use.

Note: I am not a lawyer. None of what I wrote above should be construed as
legal advice - it is general information intended to help understand the
boundaries between copyright and trademark. To get legal advice - see a
lawyer. 

-- 
Benjamin Franz

"What's the deal with Humpty Dumpty anyway?"
                 --Tim Shimano, sci.lang.japan