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How to obtain a copyright
by Mike Lee
Category : Legal |
Copyright system ensures that a certain artistic work has legal rights. Copyright ensures that your work is recognized and sometimes it can bring you different financial rewards. Copyright initially was conceived as a way for government to restrict printing. It is defined as the legal right granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or a distributor for exclusively producing or publishing their original work. People's creativity can be protected with the use of copyright. Work that is not copyrighted is known to be available in the public domain, and anyone is free to access such work and use it without seeking permission from the original creator.
According to U.S. law, copyright is legally established the moment a work is created. You, as the author of the work, are automatically the legal holder of the copyright when you create a piece of work, granted that the work is eligible for protection. However, you will not hold legal copyright if you have entered into a work-for-hire agreement to transfer all rights of a work you created to another individual or business. Any piece of work protected by the copyright, is usually denoted by a “©“or the word 'Copyright', followed by the name of the copyright holder and the year of first publication.
Copyright laws are governed by the Copyright Act of 1976 and the work granted with copyright (for any work created after January 1, 1978) is protected for the lifetime of the creator of the work plus fifty years after his or her death. But if someone needs a longer period, it is possible if that is established by the national law.
Consider to obtain a copyright on your work is not a bad idea; it is actually a great idea. There are some advantages to obtain a copyright.
- Everybody who creates something knows how much time and financial investment it needs. Copyrighting your work, law assures that inventors and their relatives will benefit from their creation over a certain amount of time.
- Copyrighting your work gives you the legal ability to file a lawsuit against anyone who has infringed upon that copyright.
- Copyright protection also ensures moral rights; it gives you the right to oppose any changes that can ruin their reputation.
- It can bring you different financial rewards (by royalties system or sell it to other individual or company).
However, there are no international copyrights to guarantee you copyright protection globally. If you are in doubt about whether or not a work you have is protected, be sure to consult with a qualified copyright attorney.
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