Q&A with Scott Thompson

A: No, the rights are automatically vested in you or the company that contracted for your work at the moment it was created. You can even use the © symbol; just be sure to follow it with the year of creation and the name of the copyright owner. The real question is whether you should register your copyright with the Copyright Office in Washington, D.C.

Q: If I already have the copyright, why register?

A: There are two primary reasons to register a work. First, it creates a presumption that you are the author in case of a later challenge. Second, you cannot sue for infringement of your copyright until you register.

Q: Do I have to register every issue individually?

A: You can, but you do not have to. Serials, like a newsletter, can be registered as a group known as a "collected work” if they meet certain requirements such as:

→The copyright claim must be in the collective work.

→The works must be works-for-hire.

→The works must be essentially all-new issues.

Current registration fees are $35 for single works, $25 per work for up to 3 months of serials published once a week or less. and $80 for a month's worth of serials that are published twice a week or more.

Q: How do I know whether the cost of copyright registration is justified for my newsletter?

A: Ultimately, this is a decision you will have to make, probably in consultation with an attorney. Factors that will need to be considered include the nature of the information, whether subscriptions are free or fee-based (and therefore have independent economic value), how likely someone is to want to infringe your work and whether you ultimately care that much if they do.

PAULA BURKES, BUSINESS WRITER

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