copyright guidance needed

Hi,

What I've heard is that one can get copyright protection simply by marking the material as copyroght; unlike trademark and patent protection which must, obviously, be filed.

Any lawyers or para-legals out there care to comment?

DC4

I'm neither, but I have copyrighted quite a few things, so....

Yes, anything created is "protected" as soon as it's created, but as a practical matter proving it in court will be difficult. It's always a better idea to formally copyright whatever you want protected. Also, some industries have their own form of protection (i.e. if you write a screenplay you should register it with the WGA) and you should do that as well.

Never for a second think that the old "mail it to yourself" method will hold up in court. It won't. How easy would it be for me to mail an unsealed envelope to myself and then wait 5 years and put your product/intellectual property in it and claim I did it 5 years ago?

The above is correct. Any work is copyright protected as soon as you set pen to paper and begin working it out. Proving it is another matter.

Registration is fairly painless, and not terribly expensive.

http://www.loc.gov/copyright/