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You probably know that a copyright protects your work from being stolen or used by someone else, but what exactly does it entail? How do you get one, and is it necessary? This is the first article in a series designed to teach you the basics of copyrighting, how to protect yourself and what it all means.
A copyright protects you under U.S. laws for your "original works of authorship." This can include writing, music, artistic endeavors, games, etc. Anything you artistically create can be copyrighted. Your work does not have to be published to be copyrighted and when you own the copyright to your work you also are authorized to do the following:
1. Make copies or recordings of the work
2. Produce works based on the original
3. Distribute, sell, transfer ownership of, rent, lease or lend your work
4. Display, read or perform your work either in its entirety or parts.
Basically, it's yours, you can do what you want with it, unless you transfer ownership to someone else.
So, how do you get a copyright? Actually, you are protected as soon as you create your piece of work. Your copyright protection begins from the time your work is complete, whether or not you have it officially registered as such. The exception to this rule is works made for hire. Works made for hire include those which you have done within the scopy of your employment, ie: it is part of your job to produce works and "a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire.... " (U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 1) Copyright laws will protect you even if you do not have a registered copyright. You need to be registered before you can go to court if an infringement occurs, at $20.00 a piece, copyrights could really be saved for more valuable works that you want protected completely as court costs alone could outweigh any damages you might receive from a short article, poem or story.
Things that can not be copyrighted:
1. Those works that have not been tangibly recorded
2. Titles, names, phrases, symbols, lettering, etc.
3. Ideas, discoveries, procedures, methods, etc.
4. Works completely consisting of common property and no original authorship.
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