If I decide to self-publish a book what happens to the copyright? Is there a way to prevent others from claiming copyrights for a book published autonomously? Are there OS licenses specifically tuned for books?
https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/
You probably want the SA (share-alike) or NC-SA (non-commercial share-alike) but take a look and decide what suits you best.
From https://creativecommons.org/faq/#do-i-have-to-provide-my-name-can-i-ask-that-my-name-be-removed :
Do I have to provide my name? Can I ask that my name be removed?
As a licensor, you may choose to receive under any name that you wish, such as a pseudonym or pen name, or you may choose not to be credited by name at all, and to publish anonymously. You do not have to be credited under your legal name. Most jurisdictions permit this, but you should check to be sure this is valid in your jurisdiction.
Don't go NC. Authors should be able to sell their work (and derivates too)
It's useful as it makes it harder for AI to use it. Derivates can still reach out to ask to be allowed to sell it
We shouldn't throw humans under the bus just to thwart AI. This is not the way.
I'm fine with making people email me if they want to sell derivatives of a creative work tho
And if you're dead or incarcerated or otherwise uncontactable?
If you write something, you own the copyright, period. There's no registration process or anything like that. If you made it, it's yours, legally. And the only process involved to exercise your legal rights would just be proving that you're actually the one who made it.
Of course, none of that makes it certain that no one will claim it as their own or use it for something you don't want. As a general rule, just assume that anything you don't want used in a way you don't like simply shouldn't be put out into the public at all, regardless of what kind of license you package with it. If you're an average person and not a billionaire good luck exercising any kind of legal rights for intangible stuff like written words.
It is generally a good idea to include with anything you put out there some kind of license, which could be as simple as a .txt file that says "Made by [name], free to use for xyz purposes with abc caveats"
For a book stuff like that can go into the first or last couple pages that usually include all sorts of random boring information and publisher credits and whatnot
You do have to prove you wrote it. Nothing does this better than owning the credentials to an account with your name and posting it publicly on GitHub, Internet Archive, or similar
