The legal ownership of a "work," which can take any of the following forms: written text, program source code, graphics images, sculpture, music, sound recording, motion picture, video, pantomime, choreograph and architecture.
Before January 1, 1978, a work had to be published to be copyrighted. After that date, any work expressed in paper or electronic form is automatically copyrighted for the life of the author plus 70 years. Registration with the Copyright Office is not required, although it is beneficial if there are disputes later on. In the U.S., a copyright symbol is not mandatory, but recommended.
For works by an anonymous author or an author who uses a fictitious name (pseudonymous) as well as works "made for hire," such as a publication written by an employee of a company, the copyright lasts 120 years from date of creation or 95 years from date of publication, whichever is shorter.
Copyrights Are Losing Their Value
In today's AI world, copyrights are ignored by the largest tech companies in the country. They gobble up everything written, photographed and filmed to use as training material for their AI models. The claim is that they are only "reading" the content; however, that very content is turned around to deliver results when prompted (see
AI training and
AI model). Increasingly, publishing companies are suing tech companies. Stay tuned! See
plagiarism,
fair use doctrine,
Creative Commons,
copyleft,
trademarks,
DRM and
image protection.