how do i copyright a poem?

Question

i have wrote a few poems and i would like to know how to copyright them or if its necessary...they are just amateur poems that i wrote but i would like to post them on the Internet...

Answer 1

You can informally copyright it by putting a copyright notice on the poem.

Or you could copyright it with the U. S. Copyright Office. You can now do that online: http://www.copyright.gov/eco/index.html

In fact, you can even "preregister" your work: http://www.copyright.gov/prereg/

Answer 2

Go to the website for the US copyright office and download an application. It's not a big deal but it costs about $40. You might be able to copyright a collection of several poems under one application, but I'm not sure.

By the way, with regard to what others are saying, just putting it in a book does not confer a copyright. And if you can get it published in a magazine, good for you but it is very tough to do. You'll probably spend more than $40 in postage mailing it to dozens of journals before getting it accepted and then, depended on the journal, THEY might own the copyright. Be careful to make sure the copyright returns to you.

You can declare a copyright without registering it and that gives you some protection but very little. If someone took your stuff and made money off of it and you took them to court it can be tricky proving you self-copyrighted before they did. Registering it is a lot more rigorous.

Answer 3

in the US any creative work is automatically protected under copyright. As added proof of it being your original work you can send it to yourself in a letter. Keep the unopened postmarked letter as proof if you need it in a legal matter.

Answer 4

You could get a creative commons license. it's not exactly the same as copyright, but you could reserve some rights from your work.

Answer 5

For work written after1989, the use of the copyrght symbol is not necessary, but is a good idea. There is no cost unless/until you register it. One would do this at or shortly before publication, as in a book, magazine, script, etc.

Answer 6

In all honesty, don't bother- someone will steal them anyway if they please, copyrighting doesn't do much, it's very hard to enforce it.

Try to send 'em off to a few magazines or places they could be published- it's the automatic copyright plus it gets your name and work out.

Answer 7

You could publish them in a book.
Because once there under a name
ITS COPYRIGHTED.

Answer 8

I have a few poems copywritten on this site.. its great..