One might say that in an Information Age, it can only be more important than ever to be familiar with those pesky copyright laws. Luckily, for the most part the idea of copyright translates nicely into the electronic world. First of all, let's back up a bit. Just as with other forms of property, there are certain sets of laws designed to protect intellectual property from being abused, stolen, etc. Copyright protects original creative expressions, including writing, architectural design, software, graphic arts, motion pictures, and sound recordings.
Patents are available to protect novel and useful inventions.
This includes machines, man-made products, compositions of matter, and processing methods. Trademarks protect distinctive pictures, symbols or words from being used by competitors for identifying similar products. Now back to copyrights. Copyright protection begins from the moment of creation. That is, you don't have to register your work with the government, and you don't have to display a special copyright notice on your work to enjoy basic copyright protection.