work in progress- writing assignments & links for use in the home school |
This is an excellent summary, and very clearly written. I'm impressed! A couple of points I wanted to be sure you clearly understand: - Your work is copyrighted the minute you record it on a "fixed medium." (For example, the minute you print it out on paper, save it to disk, paint it on canvas, etc., it is copyrighted by you. However, the law grants additional protections and you can recover higher damages in a lawsuit if you register your work with the Copyright Office. That costs about $30, as I recall, per item. Registration is not required, however - nor is a copyright notice, although putting "Copyright <year of creation> <my name>" puts others on notice that the work is, indeed, yours, and not "public domain.") - You cannot create a derivative work of a copyrighted item unless you have contacted the copyright holder and obtained a license to do so. The right to create derivative works of your own copyrighted items is YOUR right alone, unless you give away or sell that right. You can create derivative works from public domain items without obtaining permission. |