Registration
If
you get protection for your work without actually registering it,
then why would you register it? In most cases you won’t. The only
value there is in a registered copyright is that it gives you the
right to sue someone for infringing on your copyright (likely quoting
from it without permission or without giving you credit). If we are
talking about articles, unless you were paid top rates for those
pieces, there usually is not enough money involved to justify a suit.
Even with a book, unless someone has made it into a movie or
infringed on the merchandising rights, there still isn’t enough
money at stake.
If
you register before or within 5 years of publication, you have
established the validity of your copyright in case you want to sue.
If your registration is made within 3 months after publication or
prior to the infringement, if you win, you can collect both statutory
damages and attorney’s fees. You can actually register your
copyright after an infringement, but if you do you can only collect
actual damages or lost profits—no attorney’s fees.
To
register a copyright you can order Form TX from the copyright office
by mail, or go to their Website and copy off that form. Their contact
information is as follows:
Copyright
Office, Library of Congress, 101 Independence Ave. SE, Washington DC
20559-6000; 202-707-3000; http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright. You will
also find additional details about copyright on their Website. Check Website for current fee for registration
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