Music is copyright protected (in the US) the moment it's recorded. It doesn't have to say so on the CD.
jhmattern, I do what you do, my wrist is killing me...have u tried dragon? What do you know of copyrights for a blog...are new posts automatically protected? xo
The author of a works (most any works) has an immediately right to claim copyright... they are the only person with a rightful claim... but that in itself isn't "protection" from anything. Having a right to claim "isn't protection"... you can only protect your copyright in a court of law (and generally that means upfront legal fees) but to even do that (in the USA) you need to register your claim first and that about a four month process. If you never register your claim you don't have any protection... everyone in the world can infringe and you can't even go to court to stop them from infringing until you have registered your work with the copyright office. As for the original question you can check here to see if something in registered. http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First Be mindful, that even if it isn't registered there is almost always a person with a rightful claim of copyright... although some works can be considered public domain... most information put out by the government is public domain so fair use can apply.
I have copy right, I was asking about FUTURE posts, which I have not yet written...I can't buy new copyright everyday right?
I own the copyright on your FUTURE posts. Just let me know when you are done with them. Seriously, carefully read what people have already said. You have a copyright as soon as you have created the work - whether you type it or dictate it does not matter. Once it is in tangible form you own the copyright to anything you create.
If you are planning to register for copyright (the content of a website) - you can file that as a single title (compilation) for $35 and you can update that periodically once a month, quarter, year, or every 5 years - depending on your rate of new material. If for example, update your website's copyright once every 3 months - you never need to ever prove damages to receive statutory damages on infringement claims. That's a really big deal since an infringing website could have Adsense as their commercial interest and only made $5 off your contributions - so damages awarded would be $5...but if you file a copyright within 3 months of the works creation date statutory damages must be $150,000 for each infringement.
Honey, you mock - but RSS feed screwed a lot of people, b/c lazy bloggers will literarily copy and paste articles from your blog. HENCE I got an all rights reserved for what I have online...but to pay fr this daily is nuts.
This answer makes sense and yes I've been doing that. I would blog once a month with several posts dated on different days, but that's not blogging! Blogging is adding new stuff everyday, but then I don't want to pay for this daily...but yes, I'm doing it now as you say above. Thanks btw for 'getting' what I'm asking.
You do not need to pay anything to obtain a copyright to your blog posts. You get that automatically. If you are paying money on a daily basis to protect your copyright you are getting scammed.
You automatically have a copyright the instant you write or record something. If or how you chose to register that copyright is a totally different question. Good luck.
We are talking about different thing here... Every author has a rightful claim of copyright the moment that their thoughts are put into some tangible form - on paper, in a digital word document, a web page such as a blog. You "OWN THE RIGHT OF COPYRIGHT"... but if you never exercise your right that doesn't stop anything; it doesn't stop me from borrowing your work, or stealing it, (use what ever other verb your desire)... I took and and I am now using it as my work now. You can file DMCA claims to service providers that are protected under DMCA Title II Safe Harbor (search engine, hosts, etc. must remove... but that still isn't protection; I can counterclaim... and then you have 10 business days to show proof of court action. But you can't even show proof of court action to such providers because to go to court you have the burden of showing you are the factual copyright holder and that requires a certificate of copyright which you don't have unless you filed your copyright, and the copyright office does an extensive title search which usually takes 4 months. Let's be clear here... if you write something today and claim you have a right of copyright like [Up the hill went Jill & Jack to carry a pale of crystal clear water back, etc.] and tried to file for copyright - the copyright office would certainly deny your right of claim because your inspiration was actually claimed by Newbery Publication in 1760. Alternative, Newbery publication could sue you for copyright infringement and as wrongly pointed out here "You automatically have a copyright the instant you write or record something"... isn't really true... a title search must recognize yours as the first"... your actions might not be proven willful - but your common law right to claim copyright wouldn't hold up in a court of law. Review http://www.copyright.gov/eco/ for filing copyright. You can file titles under your blogs name and that covers everything to date under a single $35 fee... after you get your certificate you can upgrade your title once each 3 months (and not need to wait for another certificate) to be awarded the highest value on damages without ever needing to prove any damages occurred. BUT NOTE - you can't actually "PROTECT YOUR COPYRIGHT" unless you are willing to go to court and pay legal fees... if you never plan to do that... don't worry about your copyright - because any idiot can write something and every other idiot can steal it... smart people register their claims and hire attorneys and go to court to protect their rights and seek damages on infringement.
Oh for crying out loud, don't you think that as a published author I know this? I'm trying to keep the lazy bloggers from stealing my posts.
You? I thought your comments were for the opening poster? For yourself... if you filed a title under your blogs name - that's it. All new stuff does not have any immediate coverage but you can update a title as often as you desire... (same as books) a book published 1900, revision 1905, 1912, 1920, 1550, 1976, 1999, 2007, 2009... it's still the same "book" or "blog" with merely changes added. It's important to note these dates 1. If authorship and registration dates are within 3 months of each other it means any infringement is "willful" and the court must award statutory damages in the amount of $150,000 (and you can still receive actual damages above that) 2. If authorship and registration dates after 3 months but under 5 years of each other it means an infringement may be "willful" but could be unintentional and the court could award statutory damages in the amount of $150,000 or something less BUT no less than $2000 [that might be $200 now] (and you can still receive actual damages above that) 3. If authorship and registration dates 5 years or more apart - no statutory damages can be apply - you must prove actual damages... e.g. You wrote it in 2004 and that guy has been selling it is an ebook for 4 years (according to financial receipts) and 1 page out of 10 is yours and he sold 10,000 ebooks and $10 - actual damages $10,000... but if he sold only 1 ebook you get to recover $1. So let's say - your wrote something, and someone stole it BUT it hasn't been included in an update yet... just wait - don't mention anything to anyone - until you have an update recorded... and then send out the dogs.