That means that you automatically own the copyright to any original work you create—as long as you commit it to readable form. For the current list of countries that are signatories to the Berne Convention, visit the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) at http://www. wipo. int/members/en/ WIPO does not offer a registration service for copyright, but it does acknowledge that many countries have national registration systems in place and that for some countries, this serves as prima facie evidence in a court of law as to copyright ownership.
Publish your work to gain common law copyright protection. Whether you publish on a blog, a newspaper, a magazine, or in book form, this is another method to establish you as the original author. Be sure that when published, the work contains your full name and the date of publication. Note that if you are a US citizen, you will need to officially register with the US Copyright Office before you are able to make a claim in a US court (even if you already own a right on your work). Registration may also entitle you to statutory damages in a US legal system.
You might also consider adding reference to the legislation that backs up your copyright claim, such as: “© 2013, [your name]. Except as provided by the Copyright Act [date, etc. ] no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. “[3] X Research source The appropriate wording is not set in stone and is often defined by your publisher’s preference, or by jurisdictional tradition, so ask your publisher or attorney for advice. If you are considering publishing in various countries, it is a good idea to ask your publisher’s legal team or your own attorney about the value of registering in all countries where your works will be published.
You can send a copy of any published work to the British Library within one month of publication so that they can include it as part of their records of all published works. Find out more about the British Library and copyright here.
Like in the UK, copyright in Australia is automatic. There is no system in place for “official” registration. You can, however, send a copy of your book to the National Library of Australia. [7] X Research source Check State legislation as well, as you may need to make a legal deposit to a relevant State library.
You can send a copy of every new published work to the National Library of New Zealand. To function as a “legal deposit,” should you need formal proof of the date of your copyright.
