When a person creates — whether a novel, a song, a painting, a photograph, a piece of software, or any other original work — something unique happens: an idea that existed only in the mind of that individual takes shape in the world. This act of creation carries with it an inherent right that has been recognized by the international community as a fundamental human right.
Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948) states that every person has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary, or artistic production of which they are the author. This is not a legal technicality — it is a principle of human dignity: the one who creates has an intrinsic bond with what they create.
This same understanding is the foundation of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886, revised multiple times, currently adhered to by over 180 countries). The Convention establishes that copyright arises automatically at the moment of creation, without the need for any registration or formality. In other words: you are the author from the instant you create. The right exists before any certificate, before any government office, before any signature.
The law recognizes the right of authorship from the moment of creation. But the law operates in the real world — and in the real world, disputes arise. When two parties claim to be the original author of the same work, or when someone uses a work without authorization and denies its origin, what matters is proof: who created it, and when?
Without evidence of the creation date, the author who actually came first may lose a dispute simply because they cannot demonstrate priority. The right exists — but without proof, it cannot be asserted.
This is the central problem that has challenged authors throughout history: how to prove, in a reliable and verifiable way, that a work existed at a specific moment in time, before anyone could have copied or claimed it?
Before digital technology, authors turned to an ingenious but fragile method: they mailed a copy of their own work to themselves, keeping the envelope sealed and unopened. The postmark on the envelope would theoretically prove that the work existed on that date.
This practice — known as "poor man's copyright" in some countries — was widely used throughout the 20th century by writers, composers, photographers, and other authors who could not afford formal registration or who simply did not know that it existed.
The method had serious and well-documented problems:
Other methods tried over the centuries include notarized declarations, deposits with lawyers, publication in newspapers, and registration with guilds or publishers. Each had its limitations: cost, access, geographic reach, durability, and above all, vulnerability to forgery or dispute.
With the internet, creation exploded in volume and speed. An author can write a text, compose a song, develop software, or design a brand in hours — and instantly share it with the world. But this same speed has multiplied disputes over authorship. A work published online can be copied, modified, and redistributed in seconds. Proving that you were the original author, and when, has become simultaneously more important and more difficult.
Traditional solutions have not kept pace. National copyright offices exist, but they are slow, expensive, geographically limited, and often ineffective in international disputes. Notaries and lawyers offer security but at a cost inaccessible to the vast majority of independent authors. And the "sealed letter" method, already fragile in the physical world, has no equivalent in the digital environment.
Global Copyrights was created to solve this problem — for any author, anywhere in the world, at any time.
When you deposit or register a work on our platform, a process takes place that is fundamentally different from everything that came before:
Unlike the sealed letter, there is no physical envelope to open, no paper to deteriorate, no postmark to question. The mathematical proof of the existence of your work on a specific date is absolute — verifiable by anyone, at any time, from anywhere in the world.
Unlike expensive national registrations, Global Copyrights is accessible to any author from anywhere: the author who writes in a language unrecognized by official offices, the musician in a country without adequate infrastructure, the photographer who creates dozens of works a month and cannot register each one individually.
The Berne Convention says you are an author from the moment you create. The Universal Declaration says this right is yours by virtue of your humanity. Global Copyrights gives you the tool to prove it — simply, reliably, and for the future.
Because a right that cannot be proven is a right that cannot be defended.
Learn more about our plans at globalcopyrights.org or contact us at support@globalcopyrights.org.