Should you copyright your work? Yes or No?

 

Should you copyright your work? Yes or No?

If you’ve written a book, a movie script or even a song, created an artistic drawing, painting, or produced a photograph you need to copyright your work immediately. Whether you produced fiction nonfiction poetry, a reference book or a textbook, you need to copyright your work. This would also include any photographs to which you plan to sell, you’ve created coding for a computer program, produced material for a website or online store, your artwork, technical drawings, you’ve recorded a song or created a sound recording, what about you’ve written a song, a screenplay or a script, feature film, documentary, animated film, television show, or video, you need to copyright your work.

It’s pretty simple how to copywrite your work, go to the copyright office website using this link U.S. Copyright Office | U.S. Copyright Office,  click on the tab that says registration and fill out the form. Pay your fee, it will tell you how to pay. Be ready to attach your work via PDF or word document or jpg to your registration. If you have more than one piece of work to register, then you need to submit each individual item and pay approximate fees for each. Cost will run you about $85-$125 per registration of your work. If you’ve written 5 books and created a movie script for each book, then it’s going to cost you a pretty penny to copyright your work. If you’re tight on cash, you can do it the old-fashioned way of copyrighting your work. Or as my dad and a former judge friend of mine used to say, do it the old school way. Take your work, finalize it, by placing a date on the cover sheet, take it to a notary and have them sign a notarized document stating that the enclosed content is your original work within the document, sign it before the notary, place each item in a separate envelope, along with the notarized document, seal the envelop, sign the flap that closes the envelope, place clear tape over your signature and date, then mail it to yourself, first class mail. Do not open it upon delivery. If you are mailing numerous envelopes to yourself, be sure to note on the outside what the content is. Such as Movie Script for Plant of the apes. Or My dog sandy as your title for your book manuscript that is in the envelope. This way once you get it back in the mail and if you ever have to produce your original work in a court of law, you know what envelopment to present in court as evidence of your creative work. Place the envelope in a safe place and only open it in a court of law where you’re fighting for your copyright rights. However, if you have a pocket of cash go ahead and register your work online at the link above and pay the fees accordingly.

Artist and Author Elizabeth Kilbride is a former political operative, author, scriptwriter, historian, and journalist. business professional, creative artist, and life coach consultant. Ms. Kilbride holds a master’s in criminology and a BS in Business Management she stepped out of the loop for a while but is now back with a powerful opinion and voice in the direction of this country and our economy. As a life coach, she is available to counsel individuals to enjoy their dreams and a better life. Ms. Kilbride loves to travel and photograph her surroundings and is also a gourmet cook who loves to garden and preserve food for the winter months.