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Copyright Law





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http://www.loc.gov/copyright/circs/circ1.html#wccc

HOW TO SECURE A COPYRIGHT

Copyright Secured Automatically Upon Creation
The way in which copyright protection is secured is frequently
misunderstood. No publication or registration or other action in the
Copyright Office is required to secure copyright. (See following
NOTE.) There are, however, certain definite advantages to
registration. See "Copyright Registration."

Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a
work is "created" when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the
first time. "Copies" are material objects from which a work can be
read or visually perceived either directly or with the aid of a
machine or device, such as books, manuscripts, sheet music, film,
videotape, or microfilm. "Phonorecords" are material objects embodying
fixations of sounds (excluding, by statutory definition, motion
picture soundtracks), such as cassette tapes, CDs, or LPs. Thus, for
example, a song (the "work") can be fixed in sheet music (" copies")
or in phonograph disks (" phonorecords"), or both.

If a work is prepared over a period of time, the part of the work that
is fixed on a particular date constitutes the created work as of that
date.

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