If you are a songwriter, author, or visual artist, you will be creating works that you might sell. If you do not protect your work, however, someone else can appropriate it. A copyright is the form of legal protection offered under U.S. law to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works. Copyright protection is offered for both unpublished and published works. The owner of a copyright has the sole right to print, reprint, sell and distribute, revise, record, and performs the work under copyright. The copyright protects a work for the life of the author/artist plus 70 years. Only the author or someone assigned rights by the author can claim a copyright.
When a work is created, its copyright is automatically secured. According to the Copyright Office, “A work is “created’ when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the first time.” The use of a notice of copyright is not required but is recommended, and official registration of the copyright has certain advantages. The elements of notice for visually perceptible copies require:
- The symbol © (the letter c in a circle) and/or the word “copyright,” or the abbreviation “copr.” and the current year, and
- The name of the owner of the copyright, or an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of the owner.
Example: Copyright © 2014 by Janina Joyce
There are variations for sound recordings. Legal counsel should be sought for any issues that are unclear.
Now that writing, photographs, art, and music can be posted on the Web, entrepreneurs must protect their intellectual property online as well. The right to reproduce someone’s work online is called electronic rights.
Using artwork without permission, even if it is a song, photo, or poem posted online, is Internet piracy. Internet piracy was addressed in 1998 with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The act protects copyrighted software, music, and text on the Internet by outlawing the technology used to break copyright-protection devices.
You should take certain steps to protect your electronic rights. Beware of contracts that include the following:
- Work-made-for-hire: This means you are giving up the rights to your work. Now the buyer can use it anywhere, without paying anything beyond the original negotiated fee.
- All rights: This means you are handing over all rights to your work to the buyer.
Here are some strategies for protecting your electronic rights:
- Get the buyer to define exactly what is included in electronic rights. Does it include online publication, CD-ROMs, or anything else?
- Put a limit on how long the buyer can have the electronic rights—one year, for instance.
- Ask for an additional fee for each additional set of rights. A good rule of thumb would be to request 15 percent of the original fee every time your work is used somewhere electronically. For example, if you sell a drawing to a newspaper for $1,000, you could ask for $150 if the paper wants to use it on its Web site.
Learn more about copyrights and electronic rights only at the London School of Business and Finance.
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