How to Copyright Your Creative Work - Law

If you are a writer, you may have wondered what you need to do to copyright your creative work. Indeed, you actually may have gone through sleepless nights worrying about somebody stealing your written work - a work which you have not filed with the Library of Congress. Through this article I will provide you with an overview of what you need to understand, and how to copyright your written work.

First, it is important to dispel some significant myths and misunderstandings about copyright law. One of the most common misunderstandings is that you must -- must -- file your written work with the government to have copyright protection. This is false.

Second, one of the more interesting and widely believed myths is that you need to mail your written work to yourself to ensure you have copyright protection. Once again, this is a myth ... it is false. The only entity that benefits from mailing your written work to yourself is the post office. There was one rare benefit in history: If somebody ever questioned as to who wrote a particular piece of work, then by being able to show a mailing date on the envelope containing the written material, you could establish a date when the person wrote the written work. With the rise of the computer in the late 20th and early 21st century, it is now easy to determine when a piece of written work was created because the computer records it itself.

What you need to know about copyrighting your material is that as soon as you finish writing something -- a portion of a book, an article, an essay, a song, a story -- you've established a copyright interest in the work. End of story.

You can better protect your copyright interest by putting the following indicia at the end of your written work:

2007 Joe Writer

This copyright symbol informs a third party that you are asserting your copyright interest in a piece of the written work.

Finally, if you so desire, you can file your copyrighted work with a governmental agency. In the United States, that agency is the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. There is fee (which is not that significant) with filing copyrighted work with the Library of Congress.

By filing your copyrighted material with the Library of Congress, you gain an added benefit should you ever have to sue someone for copyright infringement. Besides the damages associated with the copyright infringement lawsuit, you would also be able to obtain treble damages (damages in an amount three times of your losses) together with payment of your attorney fees.

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