If you have been scratching your head (or elsewhere) wondering if the United States Copyright Office has ever received or processed your application, you may be encouraged to know that on August 15, 2011, I received my official Certificate of Registration for the "I Am the Village" song. This was a 3+ year application process, and although it was a long one, I would like to encourage my fellow "creatives" to go through the motions and not panic if you do not get an immediate reply.Folks, there is no conspiracy theory here and I am here to confirm that it is highly unlikely that your copyright application did not get lost in the mail. The cold, hard truth about copyrights is that it actually does take that long sometimes. My recommendation is -- don't begrudge it, just plan ahead and apply
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It is vital that you take care of the registration of your firm once you have started off with the business of your choice. The registration applies to the name of the company, the company logo and also a unique business code. The importance of registered trademark can never be ruled out and can save you a lot of trouble from fraudsters and also protect you from possible lawsuits arising out of copyright infringement. But first let us get a broader understanding as to what exactly is a trademark and also know the copyright registrations procedure.What Is a Trademark and what are the different types of it:Anything that is a distinct quality or characteristic of a person, a product, a service or a company such as a logo or a slogan or the company name or all of the above come under the purvi
Read MoreQ. How do I copyright my music?In fact, you already own a copyright for anything copyright-eligible that you create: music, lyrics, poems, text, photographs, paintings-You name it, if you've created it (and recorded it somehow, either physically or digitally), you own it.(The Copyright Office says: Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed form. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work.)Q. If copyright protection is automatic, why should I register my music copyright with the government?There are a few reasons you might want to officially register your copyright. Here are a few benefits provided by copyright registration: The public can easily contact you about your music. While public contact
Read MoreWhat, exactly, is a copyright?A copyright is a type of intellectual property protection on certain eligible works. These works include (but are not limited to): Literary Works (books, website copy, articles, short stories, etc.) 2-Dimensional Artwork (painting, photography, graphic design, etc.) Performing Arts (screenplays, lyrics, etc.) Sound Recordings (music, music & lyrics together, recordings of speeches, etc. Architectural designs What does it mean to be a copyright holder?A copyright holder has the following exclusive legal rights: The right to use his or her work, whether for financial gain or otherwise The right to distribute the work or perform the work in public The right to make copies of the work The right to create a derivative work (such as a movie or sequel based off of
Read MoreRegardless of your type of business, intellectual property can be one of your most valuable assets. Intellectual property is any unique creation and expression of the mind. Whether your business is technology-, consumer- or professional service-based, protecting your intellectual property, such as trade secrets, can be key factors to your success. For that reason, investing in the protection of your intellectual property is an important part of your business operation. Failure to police and defend your intellectual property rights could ultimately result in a loss of financial gain. Certain laws have been put into place to help protect your intellectual property, such as trade dress, copyrights, patents and trademarks.Trade secrets include things such as formulas, practices, processes, des
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Should a blog post on someone's website end up verbatim in a newspaper or magazine publication? Is taking the dialogue from a television news show and publishing it in print an acceptable practice? With technology and media being what they are today, this type of thing happens all the time. Publishing duplicate content on the internet will get flagged by software that checks for duplicate content or previous publication, but what about cross-medium media plagiarism? How do you avoid that? It happens every day both on and off the internet. Is there a way to prevent it?In many cases the answer is no. The best plagiarism software can only check submitted content and match it to any other similar content found online or on offline proprietary databases. Video and television, unless there is a
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Moral Rights as Explained by Copyright AttorneysThis article is not intended as legal or expert advice and should you want to know specific information regarding intellectual property laws or applications, it is recommended that you contact copyright attorneys for assistance.Moral Rights as Related to Intellectual PropertyMoral rights as related to intellectual property, and more specifically copyright, are rights of the authors of the works qualifying for copyrights. Such rights can include the right to be identified with a work as the author, the right not disclose identity and the right to uphold the integrity of the author's name and the particular work.The term comes from a French phrase that refers not to morals such as ethical or religiously related, but to the rights of the creator
Read MoreIllegal movie downloads, most people know someone who has dabbled in it however not many people are aware of the legality and problems that may arise when downloading movies illegally online. With the vast amount of content that has been made freely available online it is no wonder why some people do experiment in downloading movies unknowing of the possible consequences. With almost 16.6 million people illegally downloading the hit movie Avatar in 2010 it shows you why the industry is desperate to halt and hopefully stop the steadily increasing stream of illegal downloads each year.There is no other way to put it but illegally downloading movies is wrong, the clue is in the name and those that participate in this hobby are breaking the law. Downloading pirated movies is constituted as a c
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