Fantasy World and Characters

[Wolfchild]

Hello everyone.

I'm at the moment in the process of conceiving and detailing a fantasy world and it's main characters in an attempt to present the idea to toy and cartoon companies for an eventual toyline and cartoon series; I've been reading a bit about copyright laws and the Berne convention and I assume just publishing the concept online first in an attempt to have it time-stamped so no one uses my ideas without my permission is not really effective if I really have to deal with legal issues, so I think actually copywritting the thing first it the way to go.

Question is, I've checked copyright.gov and can't figure exactly what applies to the concept I want to protect (fantasy world and it's inherent rules, characters and their powers and personality traits, plotlines for episodes); is this covered by the "Online registration of a basic claim in an original work of authorship" at $35? Can I compile the whole information in a series bible and copyright the whole thing for $35? If not, what are my options instead?

Secondly, I live in Portugal and haven't checked how to deal with copyrights here, but supposing it's a similar process/ value, can I copyright it either here or in the US, and have it worldwide protected either way? Can I even copyright material in the US being that I am Portuguese and resident in Portugal?

Thanks for your attention.

[Mr. Knowitall]

Registering a copyright is a good idea, and isn't expensive. Copyright whatever it is you want to copyright. If you want, write a short story, or submit a set of illustrations along with plot summaries, or whatever else it is that you're trying to protect.

As for protections in other countries, beyond the general protections offered by member nations under the Berne convention, you need to check the laws of those other countries.