Carol Ann Wilson
Haven't we all asked about this at one time or another? Perhaps others have asked you, "how do I get a copyright?"
First, what you write belongs to you and you have a copyright to the material, meaning that no one may copy it without your permission. If your work has appeared in a periodical, the publisher owns the copyright to the entire issue as a collective work, but not to your individual work. The copyright is yours unless you sign it away. You do not have to register it with the Copyright Office. You do not even have to put a © on it. The copyright is yours immediately. But it doesn't hurt to put the mark on everything you write. Experts recommend that you put the notice on it and register it.
Registering a Copyright
However, if your copyright is infringed, you cannot sue unless the work has been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. A form and instructions for doing so appears at the end of this article, and all forms may be found at the web site of the U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress,
www.loc.gov/copyright/forms.html. (You will need the Adobe Acrobat reader to download and print the forms, but instructions for downloading that software appear at the site. I recommend that you download the software and keep it updated, because most government forms, such as from the IRS, require the Adobe Acrobat reader for printing.)The type of work will dictate the type of form you need. "Short Form TX" is for published or unpublished nondramatic literary works, and instructions are also available for downloading. Other forms are needed for other types of work. Form PA is for performing arts; Form SR is for sound recordings; Form VA is for visual arts; form SE is for serials (e.g., magazines, newsletters, newspapers, etc.). Form RE is for renewal of copyright. Note: if you are writing something that might be amended, revised, or updated, you would want to register your copyright, because when you send in the updated version, you will need the original copyright number.
The fee is $30, but you can save money with regard to those fees. The American Society of Journalists and Authors advises: "[Y]ou can gang articles on a single application to save on fees and drudgery." In cases of infringement, statutory damages of up to $100,000 may be awarded if the infringement is judged to be willful, but only if the work was registered no later than three months after first publication. The ASJA suggests filing "four times a year, each time listing your previous three months' published work.." That way you protect a year's output for $80. To do so you would need not only the Form TX but the Form GR/CP for grouping works on a single application.
If you write a magazine article, you should sell only what are known as "First North American serial rights," meaning that the magazine has the right to run it one time. Publishers frequently include all rights, including on-line and CD-ROM rights, but those rights should be negotiated separately.
How long does it take to get it back? About six to nine months. I am already waiting eight months for one, so don't believe it if someone says you will get it back within four months. Just be patient.
How long does it last? For works created or first published after 1977, a copyright lasts until 50 years after the author's death. For anonymous works and works made for hire (where the person who commissions and pays for the work [could be an employer], rather than the creator [could be an employee], owns the copyright), copyright protection expires 100 years from creation or 75 years after publication, whichever is sooner.
Fair Use Exception
Section 107 of the statute [found at 17 U.S.C.] lists a "fair use" exception. While "fair use" is not defined, the statute does list four factors to be considered in determining whether a use is fair:
• Purpose and character of the use
• Nature of the copyrighted work
• Amount and substantiality of portion used
• Effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work
For example, if you quote a sentence from a 200-page book, you probably do not infringe a copyright, because such a small portion should be deemed "fair use." But if you publish one section of a four-section poem, that would probably be too much to be considered fair use. If the use is for nonprofit educational use, noncommercial research, or news reporting, wider latitude is given for copying. Also, fiction will receive greater protection than nonfiction. [Certain short phrases, such as the famous "Three-peat," are not only copyrighted, but trademarked or service marked as well.
According to Howard G. Zaharoff, an attorney who wrote an article for the May 1996 issue of Writer's Digest: "Courts will also consider the user's conduct, so that if a work is acquired by theft or trickery, its use is less likely to be considered fair." In the famous Acuff-Rose case of 2 Live Crew's parody of "Oh, Pretty Woman," the Supreme Court indicated in its 1994 opinion that if the use made is not passive reproduction, but actually transforms the original work into a creative new work that "adds something new, with a further purpose or different character," the alleged infringer has a better chance of proving fair use.
Your watchword should be: If in doubt, get permission.
You may contact the U. S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress, by phone at (202) 707-3000, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, M-F, or on-line at www.loc.gov/copyright. Other web sites with copyright information are:
www.wemsi.on.ca/netlaw.html
www.bitlaw.com/copyright
owl.english.purdue.edu/files/110.html
__________