Preview
Video Player
00:00
00:00
How to Register Your Copyright
5:16You don't have to formally register your copyright for it to be valid, but it has its benefits, and it might be a step you want to take.
[Copyright Basics with Chris Zabriskie] [Protecting and Sharing Your Work] [Deep Dive]
0:00
So you've made a website or an app or whatever you've created.
0:04
It's in that fixed, tangible form. Other people can see it. It's copyrighted.
0:09
When I said that's really all you need to do to copyright something, I meant it.
0:14
But there is one final step you can take, and that's registering your copyright with the Library of Congress.
0:19
Please let me be clear this step is in no way required in order to protect your work.
0:26
Your creation is already copyrighted. That copyright is already valid.
0:32
But there are a few benefits to registering your work with the United States Government though.
0:36
You get a nice certificate to hang on your wall or more likely file away in a drawer but still.
0:42
The certificate isn't as important as the fact that your creation is now in a public database.
0:47
Anybody can search for and find that formal registration.
0:53
It's not necessary to creating or retaining your copyright, but it might be a step you want to take.
0:57
Where registration really becomes not just important but necessary is the unlikely event that you find yourself in court.
1:04
Maybe you've made an iPhone app that someone else just stole wholesale—just unapologetically copied and sold.
1:13
It's eating into your sales. You've sent takedown notices. We're going to learn how to do that in a second.
1:19
You consulted a lawyer, and this is your last resort. You have to sue.
1:24
Now this is a total bummer.
1:28
That formal copyright registration is going to be key, and the sooner you register your copyright the better for your case in court.
1:30
If you register your work within 5 years of its creation, that actually looks really fantastic in a court of law in the United States.
1:39
In fact, if those people who stole your app didn't register their copyright at all,
1:47
there's a really good chance that you're going to win that case just by default.
1:52
If you register it within 3 months of creation, that looks even better, and it can entitle you to more money if you win the case.
1:57
All that being said, even if you waited 20 years to register your work, it's okay.
2:06
Even if you waited until right before you go to court, that really can be fine.
2:11
The creation of the work is always the most important step,
2:16
but to actually take any copyright case to court, that official registration will be required.
2:21
Registration as soon as possible after the creation of the work is always a good thing.
2:27
You'll need to decide if official registration is important to you or not.
2:34
Talk to a lawyer if you have any concerns about your own situation,
2:39
but really all this talk about lawyers and courts and suing—registering is easy, and it's cheap.
2:43
There's not a lot of reasons to not do it.
2:50
I know I keep saying it, but it's important to remember your work is copyrighted whether you register it or not.
2:52
But registering a copyright with the Library of Congress is an easy process.
2:59
You can even do it online.
3:03
There's a fee of $35 for each work, and for something like a website or an app that includes images, text, multiple pages, and all that,
3:05
it's not $35 per page or per image or anything like that.
3:14
You can register it all together in one package as a full website.
3:18
You can even upload the site or the app in a zip file.
3:22
The Library of Congress accepts a lot of different file formats,
3:25
so it's pretty simple to upload your work.
3:29
Or if you're a little more—I don't know—let's say traditional,
3:32
you can mail in a CDR with your work on it.
3:36
That's basically it. Registration is easy to do, it's inexpensive, and you don't even have to buy stamps.
3:38
But there is one small thing you need to remember when registering a website or an app.
3:45
It's one thing to make a movie and register that copyright.
3:51
Unless you're George Lucas that movie's not going to be changing much anytime soon,
3:54
but websites and apps change.
3:59
We're constantly updating stuff on the web.
4:01
If you've registered your website when you first made it live,
4:04
any changes you make after you've registered it aren't included in that initial registration.
4:08
Now that's not really as big of deal as it might sound.
4:13
You wouldn't want to have to pay $35 every single time you updated your blog. Right?
4:16
That initial registration is going to cover the most important stuff about your site.
4:21
The fact that it exists in the first place, that's important.
4:26
The whole idea of your site, what it's about, the basic code behind it,
4:30
a lot of those building blocks that aren't going to change very often.
4:34
Changing a background color, moving the sidebar navigation from the left side of the page to the right,
4:38
that's not a big deal, and it's not really unique to your site in the first place.
4:43
But major, serious revisions to your site might warrant an update to your registration, which you can do.
4:48
If that's something that you're concerned about, as always, I'd recommend talking to a lawyer.
4:54
Just remember that having that initial registration is the most important thing,
4:59
and any sort of updates you make to that registration are only going to cover the actual changes that you've made since.
5:03
So get that initial registration done, and see what your needs are going forward from there.
5:11