Time Frame

• In general, a copyright protects published works for 70 years after the death of the author, if the work appeared in print after January 1, 1978.
  
  

Protections

• Copyrights offer protection to literary works such as novels, poems and plays, artistic works such as musical compositions and paintings and technical creations such as software programs and architecture.
  
  

Warning

• Copyrights do not provide any protection to intangible concepts such as ideas, processes or systems. They do not protect inventions (patents protect these) or names, icons or phrases used to promote products, entities or services (these have trademark protection).
  
  

Registration

• Registering your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office is voluntary. Technically, a copyright exists the moment the author creates the work, whether it is published or not.
  
  

Conditions

• A work must satisfy three conditions before it can receive copyright protection: it must be considered original, it must be in a tangible or "fixed" form and it must breach a minimal threshold of creativity (for example, a blank form cannot be copyrighted).
  
  

New Media

• You can copyright your website and content on it, but you cannot copyright the domain name.