1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,360 [Copyright Basics with Chris Zabriskie] [Protecting and Sharing Your Work] [Deep Dive] 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:09,520 So you've made a website or an app or whatever you've created. 3 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:14,460 It's in that fixed, tangible form. Other people can see it. It's copyrighted. 4 00:00:14,460 --> 00:00:19,320 When I said that's really all you need to do to copyright something, I meant it. 5 00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:26,120 But there is one final step you can take, and that's registering your copyright with the Library of Congress. 6 00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:32,159 Please let me be clear this step is in no way required in order to protect your work. 7 00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:36,890 Your creation is already copyrighted. That copyright is already valid. 8 00:00:36,890 --> 00:00:42,070 But there are a few benefits to registering your work with the United States Government though. 9 00:00:42,070 --> 00:00:47,420 You get a nice certificate to hang on your wall or more likely file away in a drawer but still. 10 00:00:47,420 --> 00:00:53,250 The certificate isn't as important as the fact that your creation is now in a public database. 11 00:00:53,250 --> 00:00:57,690 Anybody can search for and find that formal registration. 12 00:00:57,690 --> 00:01:03,760 It's not necessary to creating or retaining your copyright, but it might be a step you want to take. 13 00:01:04,870 --> 00:01:13,010 Where registration really becomes not just important but necessary is the unlikely event that you find yourself in court. 14 00:01:13,010 --> 00:01:19,870 Maybe you've made an iPhone app that someone else just stole wholesale—just unapologetically copied and sold. 15 00:01:19,870 --> 00:01:24,690 It's eating into your sales. You've sent takedown notices. We're going to learn how to do that in a second. 16 00:01:24,690 --> 00:01:28,860 You consulted a lawyer, and this is your last resort. You have to sue. 17 00:01:28,860 --> 00:01:30,860 Now this is a total bummer. 18 00:01:30,860 --> 00:01:38,180 That formal copyright registration is going to be key, and the sooner you register your copyright the better for your case in court. 19 00:01:39,670 --> 00:01:47,830 If you register your work within 5 years of its creation, that actually looks really fantastic in a court of law in the United States. 20 00:01:47,830 --> 00:01:52,800 In fact, if those people who stole your app didn't register their copyright at all, 21 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:57,010 there's a really good chance that you're going to win that case just by default. 22 00:01:57,010 --> 00:02:04,950 If you register it within 3 months of creation, that looks even better, and it can entitle you to more money if you win the case. 23 00:02:06,590 --> 00:02:11,810 All that being said, even if you waited 20 years to register your work, it's okay. 24 00:02:11,810 --> 00:02:16,460 Even if you waited until right before you go to court, that really can be fine. 25 00:02:16,460 --> 00:02:21,680 The creation of the work is always the most important step, 26 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:27,360 but to actually take any copyright case to court, that official registration will be required. 27 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:33,420 Registration as soon as possible after the creation of the work is always a good thing. 28 00:02:34,810 --> 00:02:39,320 You'll need to decide if official registration is important to you or not. 29 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:43,260 Talk to a lawyer if you have any concerns about your own situation, 30 00:02:43,260 --> 00:02:50,080 but really all this talk about lawyers and courts and suing—registering is easy, and it's cheap. 31 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:52,030 There's not a lot of reasons to not do it. 32 00:02:52,030 --> 00:02:59,160 I know I keep saying it, but it's important to remember your work is copyrighted whether you register it or not. 33 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:03,360 But registering a copyright with the Library of Congress is an easy process. 34 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:05,580 You can even do it online. 35 00:03:05,580 --> 00:03:14,050 There's a fee of $35 for each work, and for something like a website or an app that includes images, text, multiple pages, and all that, 36 00:03:14,050 --> 00:03:18,130 it's not $35 per page or per image or anything like that. 37 00:03:18,130 --> 00:03:22,590 You can register it all together in one package as a full website. 38 00:03:22,590 --> 00:03:25,760 You can even upload the site or the app in a zip file. 39 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:29,610 The Library of Congress accepts a lot of different file formats, 40 00:03:29,610 --> 00:03:32,350 so it's pretty simple to upload your work. 41 00:03:32,350 --> 00:03:36,120 Or if you're a little more—I don't know—let's say traditional, 42 00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:38,450 you can mail in a CDR with your work on it. 43 00:03:38,450 --> 00:03:45,090 That's basically it. Registration is easy to do, it's inexpensive, and you don't even have to buy stamps. 44 00:03:45,090 --> 00:03:50,270 But there is one small thing you need to remember when registering a website or an app. 45 00:03:51,390 --> 00:03:54,920 It's one thing to make a movie and register that copyright. 46 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:59,010 Unless you're George Lucas that movie's not going to be changing much anytime soon, 47 00:03:59,010 --> 00:04:01,690 but websites and apps change. 48 00:04:01,690 --> 00:04:04,660 We're constantly updating stuff on the web. 49 00:04:04,660 --> 00:04:08,070 If you've registered your website when you first made it live, 50 00:04:08,070 --> 00:04:13,250 any changes you make after you've registered it aren't included in that initial registration. 51 00:04:13,250 --> 00:04:16,519 Now that's not really as big of deal as it might sound. 52 00:04:16,519 --> 00:04:21,950 You wouldn't want to have to pay $35 every single time you updated your blog. Right? 53 00:04:21,950 --> 00:04:26,750 That initial registration is going to cover the most important stuff about your site. 54 00:04:26,750 --> 00:04:30,840 The fact that it exists in the first place, that's important. 55 00:04:30,840 --> 00:04:34,600 The whole idea of your site, what it's about, the basic code behind it, 56 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:38,260 a lot of those building blocks that aren't going to change very often. 57 00:04:38,260 --> 00:04:43,430 Changing a background color, moving the sidebar navigation from the left side of the page to the right, 58 00:04:43,430 --> 00:04:48,080 that's not a big deal, and it's not really unique to your site in the first place. 59 00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:54,700 But major, serious revisions to your site might warrant an update to your registration, which you can do. 60 00:04:54,700 --> 00:04:59,460 If that's something that you're concerned about, as always, I'd recommend talking to a lawyer. 61 00:04:59,460 --> 00:05:03,970 Just remember that having that initial registration is the most important thing, 62 00:05:03,970 --> 00:05:10,390 and any sort of updates you make to that registration are only going to cover the actual changes that you've made since. 63 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:16,160 So get that initial registration done, and see what your needs are going forward from there.