 Justin S. Gray |
Copyrighting your photographs I am just getting to a point where I would like to make some money from my hobby. I know that you can copyright material with the government. I was also told that you can mail a CD or the pictures to yourself and not open the package until you do land in court? Does this mail copyrighting actually work in a legal sense until I can get the money to officially register my photographs with the US Government. Can I still put a copyright symbol on my folders if I do us the post office instead of the government? I am just looking for any guidance possible. All opinions are welcome. Thank you.
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Mark Feldstein |
Hey Justin ! You're entitled to avail yourself of protections afforded by the U.S. Copyright laws notwithstanding whether you created it as a professional or not. Under the more recent amendments to the copyright act, you may use the copyright symbol as soon as the work is "fixed in any tangible means of reproduction" i.e., created. You can't sue for infringement until the work is actually registered with the copyright office and that has to be done in a timely manner as directed by statute. In other words, the registration is your ticket to protect the work in court. You apparently were misinformed in that mailing the work to yourself means nothing. See http://www.copyright.gov and get the dowloadable forms for registration form VA for visual arts, get the procedures for registration, read and heed the time requirements and the fee schedule. You'll get the whole scoop on the process there. The reg. fees are really quite minimal and the process along with instructions are quite simple to use.
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Justin S. Gray |
Thank you Mark. Much appreciated.
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