Copyright is automatic. Material is copyrighted as soon as the work is fixed in tangible medium (for example, saved to a disk, placed on the Internet, printed on paper). Items no longer must be registered with the Copyright Office or have the ©, as of 1989.

Although some things protected by copyright are obvious, like books, movies and music, there are many things you might not think of as formal "works" that are also protected by copyright. In fact, you probably create several copyrighted works every day. These include the emails you write, photographs you take, posts to discussion boards, and more.

What do copyright laws NOT protect?

Ideas, facts, titles, names, discovery or method of operation, procedures, processes, and items in the public domain are not covered. For example, the phone book as a compilation of facts is not copyrighted.