No – and yes. Although that sounds like a silly answer, a Copyright does not need to be registered with the United States in order to exist. A work is fixed as long as it is in a tangible medium. Once a work is fixed, is it written; therefore, a copyright exists in the work. However, please note, Copyright Act – Section 411(a) requires, in part: [N]o civil action for infringement of the copyright of any United States work shall be instituted until preregistration or registration of the copyright claim has been made in accordance with this title. A unanimous opinion in Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.Com, LLC, authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg affirmed the validity of the requirement that, in order to start a copyright infringement lawsuit, the plaintiff must have all of the plaintiff’s copyrights registered with the Library of Congress.