Copyright Notice

At one time, a copyright notice was required to protect a copyright, but this is no longer the case. However, whether you register your copyright or not, it's a good idea to display notice on copies of unpublished work that effectively leave your control - for instance, if you decide to offer an excerpt on your web site, or post work to an online newsgroup.

It probably isn't necessary to use a copyright notice when submitting work to reputable publishers and literary agents; they understand that it's cheaper to pay you for your work than it is to fight a lawsuit and/or risk their reputations. More than likely, the only thing you'll accomplish by placing a copyright notice on your submission to an editor or agent is to mark yourself out as an amateur.

If you choose to include a copyright notice on your work, the proper form of notice includes all of the following three elements:

• The symbol © (Not the word "copyright" or the abbreviated "copr."; while those forms will protect you under U.S. law, they might not protect you internationally.)
• The year (For published works, this would be the year of first publication; however, there is no definitive information as to what year should be used for unpublished works, so I always use the current year.)
• Your name

Example:

To avoid any confusion as to an unpublished work, you may want to add a notation to that effect:

The notice should appear in such a way as to give reasonable notice that copyright is claimed - such as next to the title. As long as this requirement is met, a court will give no weight to an infringer's defense of "innocent infringement" - that is, that she was unaware the work was protected.