This article was written by Jennifer Mueller, JD. Jennifer Mueller is an in-house legal expert at wikiHow. Jennifer reviews, fact-checks, and evaluates wikiHow's legal content to ensure thoroughness and accuracy. She received her JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2006.
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In the US, your creative work — music, videos, stories, poems, or anything else — is protected by copyright from the moment you put it down in a fixed form (on a piece of paper or your computer). Registration is optional but does have various benefits, including allowing you to sue for infringement of your copyright in federal court if someone copies your work. [1] X Trustworthy Source United States Copyright Office Part of the Library of Congress, responsible for maintaining copyright records Go to source Even if you don't register your copyright, you still have to deposit 2 copies of any work published or distributed in the US with the Library of Congress within 3 months of the date the work becomes available. [2] X Trustworthy Source United States Copyright Office Part of the Library of Congress, responsible for maintaining copyright records Go to source