Obtaining a copyright is a process that will keep you entangled in red tape for months. Is this a true or false statement? Why not find out? That’s just what I did. I wanted to know just what went into obtaining a copyright for pictures I have taken. The first thing I did, as I always do, is search on-line. I was immediately stunned that there were 54,000,000 sites that I could pick from to learn about this. I thought I should go to a legitimate web site to get this information so I started looking at the names of the sites. I saw names like Turkeymonkey, EHow, Protectmywork and Blackhatworld. Now these sites might have good information on them, but I opted to go to copyright.gov. This seemed like the place I’ll end up at getting a copyright from, I might as well start there.
The first thing the website mentions is that when you put your information down to register for a copyright it is a public record. This record will be on the internet. The next thing I checked out was the fees. Wow! There are fees for registrations done on-line and different fees for registrations done on paper. If you’re renewing a registration there’s a fee for that. There are fees for group registrations and supplementary registrations. And it appears you can preregister for a copyright. That’s interesting.
When selecting the online registration, there is a list of requirements. You must be getting a copyright for one work that was done by one author who is the person requesting the copyright. Simple enough. So, for example, if I had taken 10 pictures that turned out extraordinary and I wanted to copyright them I would have to register for 10 copyrights. Each needs its own forms and will be separate fees. In this case I would register for the group registration, which would allow me to register 750 photographs at one time. Now that sounds much easier and cheaper.
It doesn’t look all that complicated to register for a copyright. Anyone who is creating or inventing something should copyright it. This web site has all the information you’ll need. If you have questions, there’s a phone number you can call. I never tried the number so I can’t tell you if you are on hold for an eternity or not. I can’t tell you if the people there have great customer service. However, what I can tell you is if you have any doubts or questions about the copyright process; make an appointment with legal counsel. They can work through the red tape so you don’t have to.
