On July 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the Copyright Royalty Board violates the Appointments Clause of the Constitution. The Copyright Royalty Board is a board of...
Learn MoreThanks to a New Jersey court ruling, if you’re one of the many people who check their personal email at work, you might be concerned. Forgetting to log off a public computer could be even more stressful after...
Learn MoreYou might wonder “What can I copyright?” There are several restrictions on individual works, but copyright protections for compilations of multiple individual works have been controversial, even among courts...
Learn MoreWhile the current Supreme Court term will undoubtedly be remembered for the recent ruling on the Affordable Care Act, the court also issued an important ruling on Congress’ ability to reissue copyright...
Learn MoreThe answer to the questions “Who owns my copyright?” and “Who holds the copyright to a work I created?” are far more complex than you might think. Copyrights are created when an original work becomes fixed in...
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Comments Off on How do I get a copyright?
Many people wonder how do I get a copyright? The dirty little secret of copyright law is that you do not really need to do anything to obtain a copyright. Once you take that thought in your head and put it to paper you have already obtained a copyright in what you have written. It is not the legal process to register a copyright which gives the author the copyright but the process of creating the work in the first place. Granted, the protections offered from registering your copyright are much greater than the protection which is afforded to unregistered copyrights, however, unregistered copyrights are still able to be protected.
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