Thieves and usurpers are like a weed to every society. Even after the society has been civilized, they still exist here and there. Now in this world of intellectualism, they do not only seize wealth or property, but also steal one’s ideas or creativity. Thanks to the copyright law that established in 1709 as Statute of Anne to encourage the artists and inventors to carry on their intellectual work by keeping their work as their safe possession. Thence, it is the need of the hour to safeguard your intellectual property, whether you may be a writer, photographer, or musician. Since the internet has turned this world into a global village, you must protect your creation as who knows someone from any corner of the earth is using your creation against your wish and left you unnoticed, which might keep you bereft of your own creation!

Copyrighting and protecting your creations is very important these days. If you belong to music industry, you need to safeguard your work right from the musical score and arrangement, lyrics, audio/video recordings of your performance, costume, set, lighting, etc. to the artwork like album cover, graphic designs or even brochures created for promotional purposes. Copyright is an exclusive legal right on the part of the owner to perform, display, rent/sell, reproduce, publish, or distribute the piece of his/her artistic creation. Once you register the copyright for your creative work with the government, you receive automatic copyright protection implicitly as per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. The copyright is applicable to the lifetime of the creator, plus 70 years after his/her demise. This 70 year copyright term extension is called as Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

For the recording of the copyright, you can apply online to the Copyright Office with some non-refundable affordable filing fee and a non-returnable sample of your creation that would be retained in the Copyright Office archive. Once your application and fee are received, you copyright is regarded as valid and the Post certificate confirms this legally. Nonetheless, you should keep the collection of your scrap or rough work, which will be a sound proof in case anyone challenges you about the ownership of the creation. If someone tried to purloin your intellectual property, you have many options to proceed further; you either may ask for the reprint fee or royalty, or you may give them the ultimatum to remove the content from their site. Unless they do so, you can take aggressive legal action against them.

United Kingdom Copyright Service: http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/
List of Copyright Services for other countries here

View a more detailed guide about UK Copyright Law