A: Sadly, no. While the very creation of a work, i.e. recording it in any appropriate medium (like writing a story, painting a picture), grants automatic copyright protection, and while by placing the © symbol on a work its creator is stating their claim of copyright ownership, this in itself is not proof. And though the © symbol allows you to give fair notice to the world of your copyright claim (which means infringers can’t use the excuse they didn’t know), what with the potential revenue that can be earned by the correct exploitation of the right intellectual property, some unscrupulous people may remain undeterred by the © symbol.

That being the case, if you had to prosecute an infringer or even defend yourself against someone who claims you’ve breached their copyright there are ways in addition to the © notice that you can help yourself provide evidence you created and own your work:

• Keep previous drafts, notes or preliminary drawings, signed and dated, demonstrating the development of the work from idea through to finished version.
• Keep correspondence (letters, faxes, emails) with and from third parties about the work in question.
• Register your copyright of work with duly noted®.

And we still advise our clients to use the copyright © notice. Simply place the copyright © symbol on your work along with the date of its first publication and your name (or the year of creation if it is still unpublished). It is a useful, universally recognised notice of ownership.

A: Let’s answer that question with one of our own: do you trust your postal service? Have they ever mislaid mail you’ve sent or were due to receive, or just plain delivered it to the wrong address? Not only that, do you expect them to keep a record of a special delivery they handled (your manuscript/lyrics/disc) for ten years or longer? In fact, will you be able to keep track of all your self-addressed documents over ten years? And what if you lost your copy of the postal service’s proof of mailing?

Fact is, registering your work on-line – and with an independent third party – is a swifter, more convenient and secure way to establish your link with your work.

And yes, you could post yourself your work. But in the age of re-sealable envelopes, printed pages and re-writable disks, it’s hard to ignore the potential to falsify this old method of proving copyright, so as evidence it may be rejected in a court of law.

Firstly, because we’re neutral. Fact is, you could well get your family or friends to vouch for you in the case of an infringement. And though their evidence would be truthful, it may be argued in court that they’d naturally back you up regardless, and their evidence could consequently be called into question. However, because at duly noted® we don’t know you, have no ties with you, so have no vested interest in supporting your position, that means we will simply provide the facts.

Second and most importantly, were you to get involved in a copyright dispute, lawyers for the infringing party will likely attempt to discredit any evidence you submit, claiming that you may have simply altered your work after the fact in order to make a claim of infringement. It is vital then you can establish just when your work was created. And the secure, on-line nature of the duly noted® registration process does just that; any file you upload to us you cannot alter. Thereafter, should you then make a claim of copyright breach, the information we give – that on the date your work was registered with us it was in your possession and in a certain state, backed up by the original uploaded file itself – will be just that evidence you need.

Third party registration is about providing unbiased, verifiable evidence, and that’s what duly noted® does.

A: It’s easy! Just complete the on-line form about you and your work, select for uploading the matching file of your work you wish registered, fill in your payment information, and submit. It couldn’t be simpler, quicker, or more convenient.

Just follow this link to our Registration page.

We suggest you read our terms and conditions prior to registering.

Passwords: When you register, you’ll be asked to provide a password specific to the work you’re registering. You must keep this password safe, as you’ll need to quote it in correspondence in the event you have to claim a copyright infringement and we need to retrieve your document. See Question 8 in our Miscellaneous Questions section; “What will you do if Im involved in a copyright dispute?” for more details.