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Industry Information : One Rep's Opinion

David Gordon - The Ugly Truckling

What is COPYRIGHT?
Allan Comport

COPYRIGHT literally means having the legal right to copy a created work, which extends to all types of reproduction:

Publication-print such as editorial, advertising, institutional reproductions
Public presentation
Other specified uses such as electronic rights, or web usage.

Copyright protection covers works that are created and fixed in a tangible or material form. Copyright laws vary from country to country, and they also apply to patents, trademarks, industrial design and trade secrets. It is a form of protection provided to the creator of a work, owned by the creator with protection granted from the moment it is created. The copyright protects the work for the artist's lifetime plus 70 years. If agreed to in writing, the copyright may be assigned in whole or in part to interested parties.

The basis of the copyright law is that whoever creates or owns a work controls how that work is used. To qualify for this protection a work must be original, not a copy (or derivative) and it must be fixed, that is exist in some identifiable form. (For example, physical, visual, electronic) You may not copyright a "work made for hire".

Further, the work must be created by a person who is a citizen or resident of a country that adheres to the BERNE CONVENTION, which is an international copyright treaty. If the work is created in the United States, and then used in another country, the copyright law that applies is the one in the country of its use.

Original works are protected automatically at the moment of creation, even without a copyright notice or registration. However it is important to remember that for any formal legal claim or court matters, the artist's claim to authorship needs to be a matter of public record. This is done through registration. The work or works (there is group registration) may be done any time from the creation of the work to three months after first publication. Registration is essential in that it gives distinct advantages to the creator of the work, such as shifts in the burden of evidence, broader claim to damages and attorney's fees.

Registration is simple, and group registration can be done using an additional single form and all for the same $30.00 fee. You'll need to fill out the VA Form, and for group registration a CON Form listing the multiple works. These forms can be downloaded from the website shown below. If you save these forms on your computer you can then simply change the date, the name of the collection and the list of works on future registrations. The Copyright office accepts a variety of formats for deposit material including tearsheets, inkjet/laser prints, CD's, transparencies, photos, photocopies and videotapes. If you register your work as unpublished you'll be relieved of the deposit requirement simplifying the process further. For this designation, the work is required to be unpublished at the time the registration is sent to the Copyright Office. The work does not have to be registered again when published.

The steps to follow:

Download the forms from the US Copyright Office website-
www.copyright.gov/register
Follow the link to Visual Art Works
Complete the application Form VA
(Also Form CON for group registration)
Attach the $30 payment payable to "Register of Copyrights"
Attach a non-returnable copy (ies) of the material (s) to be registered that is called the deposit requirement.
Send the package to:
Library of Congress
Copyright Office
101 Independence Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20559-6000

Your registration becomes effective on the day the Copyright Office receives your application, payment and copy in acceptable form. Within 3 to 9 months you will receive your certificate of registration. You will want to save duplicate copies of the forms, the artwork deposit copy, and proof of delivery.

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