What Is a Copyright and How to Register Your Work
What Is a Copyright?
What does it mean to copyright something? We always see the copyright symbol © on the second page of a book, on the bottom of websites, and in the bottom right hand portion of paintings and lithographs, such as Chuck Jones’ famous 1994 work of art with Daffy Duck and Porky the Pig portrayed as Robin Hood and the Friar.
To copyright something means to give the owner of a copyrighted work the exclusive rights to reproduce the work, to make derivative works (think movies made from books), to sell the work to the public, or to perform or display the work. See 17 USCA § 106.
All of this is great to know, but how do you go about getting a copyright? The good news is that you do not have to do much at all, other than put your work of art into physical form. The statutory requirement states that copyright protection subsists “in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.” See 17 USCA § 102. This means that once your smiley face is fixed onto the piece of paper sitting in front of you by the ink of your pen, you now have a copyright in that particular work. You don’t have to put your name in the bottom right hand corner of the page. You don’t have to place the date on the work. You don’t even have to affix the copyright symbol in order to have protection. The same holds true for poetry put on paper, scenes recorded on film, pictures captured on a digital medium, and other works of “permanent” art.
So what is the point of the copyright symbol if it is not a legal requirement? It puts the public on notice that you have the copyright in that particular work, particularly if the symbol is followed by your name and the date you first published your work. Notice informs other people that they may be engaging in copyright infringement if they attempt to do any of the things listed above that you have the exclusive rights to do in regard to your smiley face, at which point you are speed dialing your copyright attorney to file a federal law suit. You may want to put on the brakes, however, before getting too excited about asserting your rights, as nothing is ever as simple as it seems.
In copyright land, before you can bring your claim for copyright infringement in federal court, you must register you work with the U.S. Copyright Office. See 17 USCA § 411. Although you will still have a copyright in your work of art if you do not, copyright registration is a prerequisite to certain remedies for copyright infringement, including statutory damages and attorney’s fees. See 17 USCA § 412.
How do you register your work?
The registration process is rather simple. You can do it online by visiting the copyright.gov website, clicking the “Register a Copyright” link, and setting up an account. The only other substantive requirements are paying a fee that ranges from $35-$55 depending on how many people were involved in creating the work and what type of work is being registered, as well as submitting two copies of the best edition to the Copyright Office. This latter requirement is called a mandatory deposit, and works deposited under this requirement are for the use of the Library of Congress. Once your application is processed and approved, the Copyright Office will send you a Certificate of Registration in about six months. To see what this looks like, check out my very own Certificate of Registration for a song that I wrote back in 2005.
Once you receive the certificate, you can protect your rights for life. Furthermore, because a copyright is a form of intellectual property, it can also be licensed, sold, or bequeathed by will. In the case of the latter, the rights in the copyright will continue for seventy years after your death, at which point it will fall into the public domain where anyone will be able to sell your iconic smiley face.
Is there anything that cannot be copyrighted? The answer is yes, and this includes things that are not fixed in a tangible medium, such as a susurrant song sung into the wind, or other such ephemeral work of art. 17 USCA § 103 also lists several additional items, including any idea, concept, or principle. Although these are more abstract, you cannot get a copyright, for example, on something where a patent would be more appropriate.
For more information or to speak with an orange county copyright lawyer, contact us.