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Proprietary
Rights, The Legal Components
The LCCN - Library
of Congress Catalogue Number
The Library of Congress Catalogue Number is the
number assigned to your work that identifies it as having been
submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office for copyright protection.
This number is not required to publish a book but is a standard in
the publishing industry, and is an economical way to properly put
your work under copyright protection. Here are the simple
instructions from the Library of
Congress Copyright Office website:
Submitting
Form TX
►Download
Form TX from the Library of Congress Website here:
LOC
, or download it directly in PDF form that can be printed here:
Form TX
►Print
the form on a single piece of good quality, white, letter-size
paper.
►In
the title blank, enter the specific title of your work, don't
include the subtitle or descriptive information.
►Fill
in the rest of the form neatly with black ink*. The questions are
intuitive. Keep your answers simple, there are no questions that
require an essay.
►In
a single envelope**, seal the completed form, a $30 check to cover
the application fee, and a deposit of one copy of the work if it
is unpublished, two if it has been published.
Mail the package to:
Library of Congress, Copyright Office, Register of Copyrights
101 Independence Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20559-6000
►Use
a copyright notice on your work to eliminate the possibility of
defense based on innocent infringement. Innocent infringement
occurs when the infringer did not realize that the work was
protected.
►The
copyright notice should contain the copyright symbol, the year of
first publication, and the name of the owner of the copyright.
(e.g. © 2000 Jane Doe)
* Make sure your application is legible, or it will be rejected.
** Your check, application and copies for deposit must all arrive
together, or your application will be returned.
It is really that easy if
the work is a single author book. You can literally follow the
instructions above and this will be sufficient to obtain a copyright for
the work. Anything beyond this, such as two or more authors,
requires a little more work and study. Most information you will
need for any circumstance can be found on the LOC Copyright Website by
following one of these links
►Copyright
Basics
►Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQ)
►Current
Fees
►Literary
Works
►Visual
Arts
►Performing
Arts
►Sound
Recordings
►Serials/Periodicals
If you would like to learn the details of copyright law and special
applications we have links to several sites here
LCCN - Copyright
A Tip on Submitting the Book
The text you send to the
Copyright Office need not be in book form but the simplest of text
forms will suffice. One method is to put the entire book
text in a word document with 1/2 inch margins top, bottom, left,
and right, (no gutters required), in 10pt Times New Roman type.
Take the the file to any quick-print shop and have them print the
document on both sides. This will convert a 300 page book
with all components of a regular book such as chapter headings,
subheadings, and spacing intact into a 70 page document, which can
fit well inside a standard
8 1/2 x 11 envelope. There is no need to staple or bind the
document in any way. You buy the envelope there, address it,
and drop it off at the post office.
The "Poor Man's Copyright"
Before you accept the wide spread
method of protecting your work with the "Poor Man's Copyright" we
strongly suggest you go to our
Legal Resources page and look
under the
LCCN - Copyright section for links about this
method. The common knowledge about this method is that you
simply mail the work to yourself, leave the envelope sealed, and
hide it away until time to go to court. Sounds almost too
good to be true, and we all know what the end of that saying is.
So, please look into this well before you use a questionable
method to protect something as valuable as a written work of art
from you mind and heart.
The ISBN, the International Standard Book
Number
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