A copyright is the legal right of an individual to control the reproduction and distribution of his works. That is, they protect the particular words, sounds, and images, or combination of words, sounds and images, that an individual uses to convey a message. Placing a copyright notice on a work is not required to protect the work. It is highly encouraged, however, since having the notice on the work can foreclose some defenses if a suit for infringement must be brought to protect the work. In the same manner, registration of the work with the Copyright office is not required to protect the work, but is also recommended.
Registration is required to bring a suit for infringement.
The work can even be registered after an infringement occurs. If the work is registration before an infringement, however, the copyright owner is entitled to additional remedies and recovery. Registration is a relatively simple process, requiring only that the work, or an appropriate portion or representation of the work, be submitted to the Copyright office. Copyrights can not protect raw ideas removed from their expression. For instance, a programmer could write a computer program which forecasts the weather based on current weather information.