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Things Everyone should know about the past and present Copyright Basics:

Publication

Publication is no longer the key to obtaining federal copyright as it was under the Copyright Act of 1909. However, publication remains important to copyright owners.

The 1976 Copyright Act Defines publication as follows:

"Publication" is the distribution of copies or phono records of a real work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending.  The offering to distribute copies or phono records to a group of persons for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display constitutes publication.  A public performance or public display constitutes publication.A public performance or display of display of a work does not of itself constitute.

Before 1978, federal copyright was generally secured by the act of publication with notice of copyright assuming compliance with all other relevant statutory conditions. 

Publication is an important concept in the copyright law for several reasons:

Works that are published in the United States are subject to mandatory deposits with the Library of Congress.See Discussion On: "Mandatory Deposits for Works Published in the United States"

Notice of Copyright

Use of the notice may be important because it informs the public that the work is protected by copyright, identifies the copyright owner, and shows the year of publication, and provides proof in the event that a work is infringed upon.

Form of Notice for Visually perceptible copies should contain all the following three elements

1-The symbol for copyright, (the letter C in a circle), or the word "Copyright" or the abbreviation "Corp.";

2-The first year publication of the work.

3-The name of the owner of copyright in the work

Certain type of works, - for example, musical, dramatic, and literary works-may be fixed not in "copies" but by means of sound in an audio recording. Since audio recordings such as tapes and phonograph disks are "phono records" and not "copies", the "C in the circle" notice is not used to indicate protection of the underlying musical dramatic, or literary work that is recorded.

How long Copyright Protection Endures

Ordinarily given a term enduring for the author's life plus, as additional 70 years after the author's death.

Copyright Registration

Registration is not a condition of copyright protection.  Copyright law provides several inducements or advantages to encourage copyright owners to make registration.

Registration Procedures

Filing an Original Claim to Copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office

An application contains three essential elements:  A completed application form, a nonreturnable deposit-that is, a copy or copies of the work being registered and "deposited" with the Copyright Office.  A copyright registration is effective on the date the Copyright Office receives all required elements in acceptable form, regardless of how long it takes to process the application and mail the certificate of registration. 

Begin with the fastest and most cost-effective method.

Option 1: Online Registration

Electronic Copyright Office (eCO) is the preferred way to register basic claims.

Ability to upload certain categories of deposits directly into eCO as electronic files

Even if you submit a hard-copy deposit, which is required under the mandatory deposit requirements for published works.  Hard-copy deposits are required for all published works.

Multiple published works if they are all first published together in the same publication on the same date and owned by the same claimant.

T&T GLOBAL MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT GROUP
info@tampersandt.com