A brief instructional video by Julie Broad explaining copyright basics for non-fiction authors: what copyright protects, why authors should register in the U.S., how to register, costs and timelines (including pre-registration), limits like fair use, and that there is no single "international copyright"—protection is country-specific. The video also lists required elements for a copyright notice and directs viewers to copyright.gov for step-by-step filing guidance.
Questions this video answers
$45
$125
1) Work is unpublished; 2) Work is in process of being prepared for commercial distribution (physical or digital); 3) Work is a type of work with a history of infringement prior to authorized commercial distribution (books qualify).
1) Year of first publication; 2) Copyright symbol or the word 'Copyright' or 'Copr.'; 3) Author's name, pen name, or publishing company that holds the right.
Chapters
What exactly is a copyright and how do I get international copyright protection? Are two of the most commonly asked questions around here when it comes to protecting your work. And then there are other ones like when should I file and how much does it cost? So if you have some burning copyright questions or you just don't even know what you don't know to ask, well, by golly, this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad. I'm an Amazon overall number one best selling author. And I'm also the founder of a fabulous self publishing services firm called Book Launchers. Let's get right into this. We've done videos on copyright before, but there were more questions. Let's start though with the basics. Number one, why do authors need a copyright? Well, copyright is the legal right to print, publish, film, record, or even perform literary, musical or artistic work. It gives the owner the right to authorize others to use it through sale, license, or some other potentially limited use for an area, a language or a purpose. When you take the material from your mind and put it on the paper, basically you're taking anything from an idea to physical form. Automatic copyright applies. An idea cannot be copyrighted. The expression of an idea in some tangible form is eligible for copyright protection. So stop thinking about that book and do it. So you have protection. But if you have automatic copyright, the question always comes up is why do you need to file for it as well? Well, when you register your copyright in the United States, you're establishing a public record of your ownership. And this opens up the door for you to have more legal rights and capabilities should you need to defend your copyright. With respect to the U.S. in particular, registering with the U.S. copyright Office gives you more protection and the ability to claim extra damages and legal costs in the case of a lawsuit. Second question, how expensive is it to copyright a book? You don't need to hire an attorney to do this. So as long as you're filing for your book and you're one author, it's pretty straightforward and affordable. Head to copyright.gov to explore your specific situation. But essentially if you file before it's published, it's $45. But here's the price list. If you're doing it after publication, it's a paper filing, so it's more expensive. It's $125. So it's ideal to file electronically. And books are eligible for what is called pre registration. A work submitted for pre registration must meet three conditions. Number one, the work must be unpublished. Number two, the work must be in the process of being prepared for commercial distribution in either physical or digital format and finally three the work must be a type of work determined by the Register to have had a history of infringement prior to authorized commercial distribution. Books qualify for this before launch, so you can pre Register Question Number three if I register for copyright protection, can people still use my book without permission? Copyright protection does mean others cannot plagiarize or use your words or the material in your book or without permission. And if they do, you have the ability to seek remedies and damages except in the case of fair use. Fair use is the idea in US Copyright law that excerpts from copyrighted material are okay to be used word for word without permission from the copyright holder. This is for the purposes of critique, teaching, research, parody, or satire or reporting news. So you can't entirely protect your work from being used by others. But hey, if someone's quoting you and your work, isn't that a good thing? Question 4 How do I get international copyright protection? Unfortunately, no such thing exists. If you want protection in the US you need to file in the US Protection against unauthorized use in a specific country depends on the particular laws of said country. A lot of foreign nations have simple copyright laws, but of course that's not the case in the U.S. there's also the Berne Convention, which most countries are a part of, and with that, copyright must be automatic. But of course the US doesn't follow that. Even after the US joined, they continued to make statutory damages and attorneys fees only available for registered works. Question 5 How do I file for copyright protection in the U.S. register a copyright claim with the U.S. copyright Office, which is Copyright.gov registration log in if you already have an account or register a new account. You'll see on the left side under Register a Work, you click Standard Application. Then you click Start Registration at the top. Follow the registration process for a new claim for a literary work, pay the registration filing fee, and then submit a deposit copy of your work either electronically or by mail. You're allowed to register your copyright online, no matter what. You are allowed to upload an electronic copy of your copyrighted work if one or more of the conditions is met. The work is unpublished, the work has only been published in electronic format, or you are using the group registration option for unpublished work. One last thing. Now that you've done it, you need to include a copyright notice in your book. The copyright notice has three required elements the year of first publication, the copyright symbol, which can be copyright or copr, or the symbol the author's name or pen name or the publishing company that holds the right to the book. What other copyright questions do you have? I'll do my best to answer them below, but remember I'm not a lawyer and this is not in replacement of legal advice. Get a copyright or trademark attorney if you have something more complex than just needing to get your book registered. Also, if you want video tutorials on how to do this, the copyright.gov website has step by step instructions that will walk you through this. The site's not super pretty so it's a little intimidating at first, but just follow the steps and the instructions you can do it. All right, if you want some thoughts on what you should put on your copyright page, this is a good video to watch after this video. Otherwise YouTube highly recommends you take a few minutes to watch this video right here. Both are great, I promise. I can't wait to see you there.
