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Introduction
Here’s a book about copyright for written works. It is for the entire universe of people who deal with the written word.
| Who This Book Is For | | Novelists, short story writers, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, biographers, historians, authors of how-to books, writers of scientific and technical works and other works of nonfiction, published and unpublished authors, journalists, freelance writers, persons employed by others to create written works, persons who employ others to create written works, editors who work for magazines and book publishers, established publishers, self-publishers, librarians, teachers, and literary agents. | |
How This Book Is Organized This book has two parts:
- Part I (Chapters 2–4) consists of a short overview of copyright law (Chapter 2, Copyright Basics), and a “how-to” guide on copyright notice and registration with the Copyright Office.
- Part II (Chapters 5–16) serves as your copyright resource; it discusses the most important aspects of copyright law in detail. If you are unable to find the answers to your questions in Part II, the final chapter (Chapter 17, Help Beyond This Book) tells you how to do further research on your own and, if necessary, find a copyright attorney.
Which Parts of This Book You Should Read Not everyone will want toread the whole book. Which parts you do want to read will of course depend on why you bought the book.
Most of you bought the book for one of these three reasons:
- You want to know how to satisfy the procedural requirements to obtain maximum copyright protection for a written work.
- You have a specific copyright question or problem.
- You want a general education about copyright law.
Assuming you fall into one of these three categories, here is how you can make best use of this book.
Readers Who Want to Know How to Satisfy the Procedural Requirements for Maximum Copyright Protection If you just want to know how to place a valid copyright notice on your work (that’s the © followed by a date and name you usually see on published works), read Chapter 3, Copyright Notice. Placing a valid copyright notice on your work will make it easier to enforce your copyright.
If you want to register your work with the Copyright Office, refer to Chapter 4, Copyright Registration, for a step-by-step explanation. You’ll find all the registration forms you need on the CD-ROM at the end of the book. You will obtain important benefits by registering your work after it is published.
Readers Who Have a Specific Copyright Question If you have a specific question or problem, start with the table of contents at the front of the book. For example, suppose you want to know whether you need permission to use a quotation from Abraham Lincoln that you found in a recent Civil War history. By scanning the table of contents you would discover Chapter 11, Using Other Authors’ Words—probably the place to start.
If you didn’t find what you were looking for in the table of contents, you could use the index at the back of the book and search under such terms as “quotations” and “public domain.”
People Who Want to Learn All About Copyright If you simply want to learn more about copyright, read Chapter 2, Copyright Basics, and then read as much of Chapters 5 through 16 as you wish. You can skip Chapters 3 and 4, since these chapters are intended for people who want to take specific steps to obtain maximum copyright protection for a written work.
What This Book Is Not About This book only covers copyright for written works. This means it is not about:
- copyright protection for music, artwork, photography, or audiovisual works; for a detailed discussion of legal protection for music, see Music Law: How to Run Your Band’s Business, by Richard Stim (Nolo).
- publishing contracts—although we discuss the copyright aspects of publishing contracts, this is not a book about how to negotiate or draft contracts
- protecting inventions—see Patent It Yourself, by David Pressman (Nolo), if you want to know about this
- protecting computer software—see A Legal Guide to Web & Software Development, by Stephen Fishman (Nolo), if you want to know about this
- protecting titles, logos, or slogans—these items may be protected under the federal and state trademark laws, which have nothing to do with copyright; see Trademark: Legal Care for Your Business & Product Name, by Stephen Elias (Nolo).
- protecting ideas—copyright only protects words, not ideas. Ideas can be protected as trade secrets, which involves committing anyone who learns of the ideas to secrecy and maintaining security procedures to prevent the ideas from leaking out.
Icons Used Throughout the Book Throughout the text, we have included the following icons to help organize the material.
Refers you to related information in another book or publication.
Let’s you know when you can skip information that may not be relevant to your situation.
This indicates that the information is a useful copyright tip.
This caution icon warns you of potential problems.
Indicates when a form is included on the accompanying CD-ROM.
Refers you to related information in another place in the book.
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