The U.S Copyright Office has made it easy for authors to register copyright on their own works. Their website contains a lot of useful information, including what can be copyrighted, a listing of current fees, and updated FAQs and other tips.
It also includes an online copyright filing interface. Using this system both lowers your cost for filing copyright and speeds up the registration process.
Using these educational tools can help educators and others become more comfortable utilizing the limitations and exceptions to the exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder under U.S. Copyright law. By exercising these valuable exceptions, we strengthen copyright’s primary purpose–“to promote the progress of science and useful arts” (U. S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8).
None of these tools should be consider the equivalent of advice given by legal counsel. These are only tools for private use to help you get started. We encourage to seek the herp of Caltech Intellectual Property attorneys to get proper and current advice.
