Copyrights

Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed.

Copyrights arise, by operation of law, immediately on the creation of any work being fixed to any tangible medium of expression. 17 U.S.C. § 102. That is, any work that a creator reduces to a writing, film, computer memory, or other medium. Keep in mind that copyright protection is narrow in that it only protects a particular piece of original artwork; not the idea. By way of example think about the Harry Potter novels, although you cannot legally write a Harry Potter novel, you can still write about the idea of a young person who discovers he has magical powers and uses them to fight a supervillain. That being said, a copyright is still valuable in that, at minimum, it provides some basic level of protection against direct copiers.

Remarkably, no publication or registration of the work is required for rights to attach. Yes, you heard correctly, you do not need to register your work to get copyright protection. 17 U.S.C. § 408(a) (“registration is not a condition of copyright protection”). Unlike patents or trademarks, which require registration, the creator of a copyright may include the copyright notice “Copyright © 2016 Author Name” upon the moment of creation. However, there are benefits to copyright registration.

Specifically, only upon registration will an owner have grounds to bring a copyright infringement action in federal court against a defendant that exercises any of the owner’s exclusive rights without permission. Moreover, as a practical matter, upon registration, an owner’s work is published on the Copyright Office website, this gives the public notice and helps discourage and prevent infringers from claiming innocent infringement. Furthermore, only if you register your copyright before the end of 3 months after the date of first publication do you get the benefit of statutory damages and attorney’s fees. Lastly, in the case litigation arises, you may be able to shift the burden of proof to the defendant; effectively the defendant will have to prove that your copyright is invalid otherwise a presumption of validity remains.

It should be noted that copyrights are not indefinite; for works created on or after January 1, 1978, the work is protected from the moment of creation and lasts the length of the author’s life plus an additional 70 years after the author’s death.

In summary, copyright registration is cheap ($35 per work), simple, and in some industries essential to credibility. Feel free to contact me to discuss registering your work with the Copyright Office.