Copyright is a widely misunderstood tool. Copyright protection is given to any original work, and is legally protected without registering with the copyright office. This is due to the 1908 Supreme Court case of Continental Paper Bag v. Eastern Paper Bag. In this case, the court decided that intellectual property held the same rights as physical property. This means that as soon as your pen hits paper the ideas that flow belong to you ethically as well as legally.
So how do you obtain copyright? Simply by creating original material constitutes protecting it as well. The problem arises if or when someone decides that they like your work so much that they credit it as their own. All flattery aside this is a very serious and all too common issue. Simply swearing that you wrote it first will not hold up in a court of law. So what will?
There are two different ways to give some backbone to your copyright. The first is to register it with the US Copyright office, and the second is to do what is known as the "poor man's copyright."
Registering with the US Copyright Office includes a copyright claim application, payment of the $30 registration fee, and a deposit of at least two copies of the work. There are five different application forms, depending on what it is that you are copyrighting. They are as follows:
- Form TX for published or unpublished non-dramatic literary works
- Form VA for visual arts
- Form SE for periodicals and serial works
- Form SR for published or unpublished sound recordings
- Form PA for published or unpublished works of the performing arts
Once you fill out one of these bad boys and mail it off with your $30 registration fee and at least two copies of the work you have a legal record of original creation.
The second way to obtain copyright is largely less popular. This is because the poor man's copyright is easy to fake, and is rarely successful if needed in court. But for the struggling artist who cannot afford the $30 registration fee, this process is highly preferred to nothing at all.
To initiate the poor man's copyright, simply seal your original work in an envelope and take it to your local US post office. Mail it to yourself and DO NOT open it when the envelope arrives. The post date provides a legal date of creation if needed. You see how easy that is? Therein lies the problem: the poor man's copyright is so easy to fake that it is rarely taken seriously in court. My recommendation is to officially register your work with the US Copyright Office.
