Writing Tip – How To Copyright Your Work

You’ve written your great nonfiction manual. Or maybe it was your next “Great American Novel”. It was a lot of work but now you have a problem. How do you protect your effort? How to copyright your work?
Relax it isn’t that difficult.
First off, let’s clear up a misunderstanding. You already have copyright. You did the moment you wrote the book or article or eBook. In copyright terms you created the work and that gives you certain rights to that work which is lumped together using the term copyright.
That’s why there are lawsuits over copyrights which seem to appear out of thin air.
So what are your rights as the creator of the work?
First off, understand that copyright law differs from country to country. Although copyright is supposed to be controlled by a massive trade agreement, the reality is different. Different countries have different attitudes. One is pro-big company. One is pro-creator. One is pro-buyer. Each country will create legislation which reflects that attitude. Sometimes above and beyond the trade agreement. Sometimes well behind. So you need to learn the rules in your country. In this article, I’m going to focus on basics which tend to be common.
There are two groups of rights which you earn as creator of the work.
The first is referred to as moral rights. These are the rights related to the integrity of the writing. Things like not being able to change the writing. Not being able to break the book into pieces. In many countries these rights cannot be sold or licensed.
The second set of rights is referred to as copy rights or licensable rights. The reason for that is that these rights can be licensed or sold. Generally, these rights refer to the right to make copies and sell them. So for example, you might have a license to sell first time North American rights… meaning you have the right to the first printing in North America. Basically, any way you want to break the sales up — by geography, by language, by sequence, by period — you can create a license for. Of course not all those licenses will be accepted by the market. You will find, in time, that there are fairly standard rights packages that are typically purchased.
So as you can see, the minimum rights you have as the author are moral rights. And you have them right from the writing of the book. So the answer to “How to copyright your work?” is to write it. You automatically have copyright by the act of writing. (I’m going to ignore such things as employment or work for hire).
The problem is how to prove that you have a copyright? That’s the question that most people are really asking.
There are two methods to prove that you have written the work.
The first is to mail a copy of the manuscript to yourself by registered mail. Once you have a dated copy of the manuscript with your name as the writer you have the proof you need to establish ownership. The keys here are to not open the envelope, to mark the envelope on the outside with the title, and finally to have enough identification to prove your ownership. You should only open the envelope in front of a notary, and if you need to prove authorship.