Relying on mailing yourself documents (“poor man’s copyright”) and automatic protections, are not the best way to protect your copyrights. The most reliable way to publicly establish your rights on record is to register your copyright.
Imagine how expensive and time consuming it would be if the government required that every web page and newspaper or magazine article ever written had to be formally registered to protect copyrights! It would create an impossible situation for both authors and the copyright office.
However, there are advantages for registering a copyright on something that is really important to you and almost all major corporations routinely register their copyrights to anything that is available to the public eye.
Advantages of Registering a Copyright
- Registering Makes it Easier to Assert Your Rights: If someone attempts to sue you, trying to make a claim against your unregistered copyrights, it may be harder to assert your rights in court. Sometimes plagiarism is obvious but it is up to individual courts to determine who came up with something first. Since anyone can simply date a document and slap on a © symbol, you never know how a court will rule.
- Offers Temporary Injunction Rights: A Certificate of Registration that is issued within five (5) years of the creation date, serves as prima facie evidence (authentic proof) that the work is original, and is owned by the registrant of the copyrighted work. With a registration, a copyright holder can get a temporary injunction against someone who might be infringing on their work.
- Permits the Copyright Holder to Send “Cease and Desist” Letters: Most infringement violations are settled out of court. Having a registered copyright allows the copyright holder to send a “cease and desist” letter that can include the real threat of further legal action should the infringer not comply.
- Gives you the Right to Sue for Infringement of Copyrights: In the U.S. you cannot even bring an infringement lawsuit against someone unless you have registered your copyright first. In some cases, you can always register a copyright and then file a lawsuit, however, to request expedited handling will cost hundreds of extra dollars.
- Prompt Registration Entitles You to be Awarded More Money: Perhaps one of the most compelling reasons for registering a copyright as soon as possible is the level of protection timely registration affords. If you register your copyright within three months of its creation, and you file and win an infringement lawsuit, you can be awarded more money.
If you register a copyright later than three months after its creation date, you may forfeit your rights to receive statutory damages, as well as legal costs and attorneys’ fees.
