Copyright is a protection that covers published and unpublished works as long as they are fixed in material form. Copyright protection begins when this work is actually created and put in any tangible form. For instance, if I write original song lyrics, the copyright begins at the moment the lyrics are put on paper in any form. Further proof can be created by putting the lyrics in an envelope and mailing them, thus using the postmark to establish the date of creation. Next, it is a good idea to register the copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office if you hope to be able to sue for monetary damages.
However, if it doesn't have a copyright notice, is it still copyrighted? Today almost all major nations follow the Berne Copyright Convention. In the USA, almost everything created privately and originally after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not. This also applies to digital art and graphics.
As long as you are the true author of the work, it is legal to place the copyright © symbol next to your name. Actually, it is your right to do so. The best way to place a copyright notice is as follows: Copyright © (first date of creation) (name of owner) ex.: Copyright © 2010 Sheryl Skutelsky. You can use C in a circle © instead of "Copyright" but "(C)" has never been given legal force. The phrase "All Rights Reserved" used to be required in some nations but is now not legally needed most places. The dates that you see in a copyright statement do not refer to the dates that the owner's material will expire, but rather the dates that the material was created or modified.
When you see more than one date in a copyright, it means that certain things were created in one year and modified in another. It does not refer to the date that a copyright will expire. The Berne Convention establishes a minimum period that lasts the life of the author and fifty years after his or her death.
So, remember that in this digital age almost all things are copyrighted the moment they are written, and no copyright notice is required. Copyright can still be violated whether it is registered or not, but only the amount of damages is affected by that. By the way, posting E-mail is technically a violation, but revealing facts from E-mail you got isn't. The law doesn't do much to protect works with no commercial value. Copyright law was recently amended by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which changed Internet copyright in many ways by making computer programs illegal to copy. It might be a violation just to link to a web page, but it's undecided as of this date.
For more information, I found the following to be of great help: http://www.directlegal.com/learning_center.htm
For actually filing a copyright go to: http://www.copyright.gov/eco/.
Be careful with sites that charge just to help you file a copyright. The advantages of filing electronically include a lower filing fee of $35 for a basic claim and faster processing time. The next best option for registering basic claims is the new fill-in Form. The fee for a basic registration on Form CO is $50.
The fee for a basic registration using one of the government forms is $65 payable by check or money order. Form CON (continuation sheet for applications) is also still available in paper. These paper forms are not accessible on the Copyright Office website; however, staff will send them to you by postal mail upon request if you write to:
U.S. Copyright Office
101 Independence Avenue SE
Washington, DC 20559-6000
(202) 707-3000
