subject: Helpful Copyright Information For U.s. Artists [print this page] If you're an artist or writer who has come up with an original work that you feel warrants a wider audience - whether it's a song, painting,, photograph, screenplay, or a novel - you are probably aware that you may have to publish your work in some manner in order to make money. But is that enough to protect your work from being plagiarized?? Copyright lawyers will tell you that yes, the moment you create your work, you have the rights to it in the eyes of the law. But they will also explain that to give yourself the best, most bulletproof protection, you need to get your work legally copyrighted.
Copyright means exactly what it sounds like: it's the right to copy. What this means for artists is that anything you create- be it a poem, drawing, photo, or really virtually any piece of art - is yours; you the copyright holder, or the person or persons you grant permission to, are the only ones who can copy the creation in any form and therefore make money from it.
As previously stated, copyright is granted to you upon creation of a work, but there are several good reasons, other than just making it public record, that you might want to make it official and seek the help of a copyright lawyer. If you ever find that you need to sue an individual for infringement, for instance, you will be much better served by having an official record of registration. Other reasons include having the ability to sell the copyright to another party, or if you have produced something that has real potential monetary value.
The Internet has, of course, made copyrights more important than ever, because it is now so easy for people to copy images, songs, photographs, etc. and publish them to the Web without the author or creator's authorization.
Registering copyrights is not terribly expensive and it can be done relatively easily on one's own. An intellectual property lawyer can assist you in the process for a small fee. He or she can be extremely helpful if you ever need to protect the copyright from infringement as well.
You are allowed to simply put a copyright symbol with your name and date of creation on your work, but it is a much safer bet to go through the official channels. This reinforces that you own the copyright, and thus all reproduction rights, and makes it easier to sue anyone who uses your work without permission.
Reproduction permitted only if all active links are maintained and byline is preserved, and/or your byline is omitted. 2012 All Rights Reserved.
