This includes just about anything created by humans and placed on some type of tangible media. The work may be purely aesthetic or functional. This means that a person used his or her creative or organizational skills to create the work. However, the amount of originality required for protection by copyright is relatively small. Copyright protection exists automatically from the moment the work is fixed on some type of tangible media.
Registration is also a prerequisite to the collection of some types of damages for infringement.
Until a few years ago, if a work was published without a copyright notice, all copyright protection was waived. This is no longer true for newly published works. It is still desirable to display a copyright notice because it will make it easier to pursue infringers. Transfers Of Copyright Rights Copyrighted works created by an employee in the course of his or her job are automatically owned by their employer. However, copyright rights owned by others are not readily transferred unless certain legal formalities are met.