Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

Re: Copyright

Any work that is copyrightable in nature is protected by law once it is fixed in a tangible medium (a written manuscript, recorded tape, etc.). However, to obtain maximum legal protection authors are well advised to file for copyright registration with the U.S. Copyright Office (www.copyright.gov). It takes a while to get a copy of the registration but it is effective from the date of filing and application fee is only $35 (for e-filing).

Re: Copyright

Go to http://www.copyright.gov/register/literary.html to see your taxes at work.

Re: Copyright

The simple answer is: If you've written the book, you've already done it. Because a work of authorship is automatically protected by copyright whenever it is "fixed in a tangible medium of expression," that is, printed onto paper or even saved to a disk.

The more complicated answer is that there are a couple more things an author can do to enhance his protection. The first would be to put a copyright notice on all copies of the work, namely the author's name, plus the word "Copyright" and/or the encircled-C symbol, plus the year that the work was first published. Pretty simple, huh? Even fancier would be to add to that the words "All rights reserved" if one wants to get the further benefit of the Pan-American Copyright Convention (which, last time I looked, helps particularly in Bolivia).

Gee, but don't you have to REGISTER the copyright with the government? Actually, no. At least, not until you decide to sue someone. But it does enhance the protection to register it soon after publication. And the Copyright Office is an arm of the Library of Congress and they like to keep copies of published books. So for best protection, send them a filled-out Form TX, with the $45 fee and a couple of copies of the book within three months of the date of publication. (Yes, it will be possible to file the form electronically for a reduced fee of $35, but I think that procedure doesn't start for a couple of months.)