I just received my official copyright notice so I thought I'd take a minute today to talk about copyrighting.
The process itself is relatively easy but some of the questions along the way were a bit confusing. So I thought I'd share in the hopes it might save someone some pain or confusion.
Why copyright your book?
Isn't it copyrighted from the moment you publish?
The answer to this question, to the best of my knowledge, is yes and no. Yes, your work is technically copyrighted the moment you publish it. However, if there is any kind of dispute, having your work officially copyrighted will work in your favor.
If you officially copyright your work, from what I understand, your odds of winning a dispute increase and you can also seek statutory damages.
If your work has been infringed, you only will be entitled to statutory damages if you registered the work within three months after the work was first published or distributed to the public.
This is also often the "
stick that causes infringers to pay without litigation".
How to copyright your book
This is the easy part. If you have an electronic copy of your book, you can do all of this online at copyright.gov.
Filing online allows you to:
- Submit quicker
- Track your application online
- Pay the application fee ($45) online
- Submit your book electronically or via mail
Processing time is approximately 8 months for an online registration and 13 months for a paper application according to the copyright office. I filed in December and the copyright certificate was mailed to me in April.
The date of registration is when they received the application. In my case, it was December 29, 2014. You want to do this as soon as possible after your book is published.
All you have to do is setup an account and fill out the application. The questions are not difficult. Do your best and if they have questions they will contact you.
With the online application, you have the option of sending an electronic PDF version of your work or a printed copy. I sent a printed copy. Or rather two printed copies. I can't remember my reasoning for doing this over sending a PDF.
If you send printed copies, my suggestion would be to send them with delivery confirmation. I suggest this just as a precaution in case at some point they come back and say they didn't receive copies.
Some questions from the copyright office
On my application, they asked me if the work contained material by other authors. I said "yes" because I paid for the cover art by Maiez Mehdi and I also listed Mollie Brumm as my editor.
Several months later I received an e-mail from the copyright office written in a language I could barely understand. Here is what they said:
Registration is delayed because the application names three individuals as co-authors (you as author of "text, photographs, artwork," Mollie Brumm as author of "editing," and Maiez Mehdi as author of "artwork") suggesting that this is a joint work. Because the contributions of the authors are unequal, we question whether these contributions constitute a joint work (note that typographical or minor corrections are not copyrightable).
A “joint work” is defined in the copyright law as “a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole.” This must be the intention of the authors at the time the writing is done. Ownership of a “joint work” belongs jointly to the authors; each author owns an undivided interest in the work as a whole. Where a work by multiple authors is not a “joint work,” each author owns his/her contribution only.
If these contributions constitute a "joint work," please send an email confirmation. (We would then add Mollie Brumm's and Maiez Mehdi's names as co-owners of the entire work).
On the other hand, if each author owns their contribution only, you may submit separate applications. At this time, we can register one of these applications. Please reply by indicating which author’s contribution you would like to register at this time (we assume your own). In order to file additional registrations, you may submit additional applications, fees, and deposit (assuming they are copyrightable). (Please do not send this material with this reply.)
On the other hand, if the authors (Brumm and Mehdi) have transferred copyright ownership of their contributions to you, please authorize us to add an appropriate transfer statement. (Ownership or partial ownership of the copyright must ordinarily be transferred by a written agreement. Therefore, "by written agreement" might be a possible transfer statement.)
Or, if this claim does not include the "editing" or "artwork" by Brumm and Mehdi, please authorize us to delete reference to them from the application.
Also, the work contains material from various sources not by the author. The "material excluded" line should state "material from various sources." The new material included line should state "text, photographs, artwork" (assuming you created copyrightable artwork.)
Here is my translation. The work is not a joint work. It was my work where I commissioned artwork and editing.
In terms of the editing, the office noted that "typographical or minor corrections are not copyrightable". This took the editing out of the copyright since the editing done by Mollie was grammer/corrections.
In terms of the artwork, I purchased all usage rights from Maiez through a written agreement. This means copyright was transferred to me by agreement. If you are going to purchase work from someone for your book, be sure to do it through a written agreement including usage rights. Otherwise, if you use the artwork in some other way, for a poster, for example, you are violating the artist's copyright.
Here is what I wrote back to the copyright office:
Please add an appropriate transfer statement: by written agreement. I purchased all rights to the cover art (Maiez Mehdi) and the editing described was only minor corrections/typographical. If this is not copyrightable as I think you indicated, you can delete any references to "editing".
The changes you suggested for material included and excluded sound good.
Please let me know if you need any further clarification or assistance.
Summary
It's a bit confusing, but the copyright office was very helpful and the process itself was easy. I was really impressed by how simple it was to fill out the electronic form. I believe I had everything done in under an hour.
Anything I'm missing? Have you done this or thought about doing it? If you've copyrighted your work, what was your experience?
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David Akadjian is the author of The Little Book of Revolution: A Distributive Strategy for Democracy.