Use Arnold B. Silverman Copyrights, in general, give the owner the right to keep others from copying all or significant portions of the protected work. A copyright in the United States is governed by federal statute and related regulations and judicial opinions. For example, if one writes a book, takes a photograph, or creates a musical work or painting, the work is protected, to a certain extent, automatically upon creation. It would be perfected by obtaining a copyright registration.
Copyrights are relatively inexpensive to obtain and are obtained through a registration system.
Copyrights have a very long termin general, for an individual, the life of the author plus 50 years. Works for hire are generally works prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment. The term is 75 years from the year of first publication, or 100 years from the year of creation, whichever expires first. The employer or the one who ordered the work is deemed to be the author. Examples of the sorts of works that may be copyrighted are set forth in the statute.