Is it legal to put copyright on your work?

Do I need a Trademark or a Copyright?

• I understand copyrighting books, individual artworks, etc., but what do you do with a whole line of images, like a landscape photographer who posts hundreds to thousands of photos yearly, do they need to get a copyright for every single photo? What about a cartoon or comic strip characters? The images constantly change in a comic strip? So how would they go about copyrighting the theme or style of the cartoon? Or a style of artwork, for example paintings of animals, using the same recognizable style, lines, colors, features? What if the artist is prolific & paints multiple images in the same style for prints, posters, t-shirts, etc. Does every image need a copyright? I've read several quoted answers on Y!A about copyrighting, that say: "Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a work is "created" when it is fixed in a “copy or a phonorecord for the first time.” I understand this, but I don't know if that means you can put the copyright symbol on every single piece you produce? Like in the examples I wrote above? Is it just an assumed copyright then? Thank you for any help!!!!

• Answer:

  Every individual image, photo. writing, painting, video, song, etc, has its own automatic copyright, even if it is never published. Everything is presumed copyrighted from the moment it is created in a tangible form (i.e., not just thoughts or ideas in your head). This has been the law for a very long time nearly everywhere but the USA, where it only became law in 1989. Prior to that, US publication required a specific "copyright notice" to claim copyright, and publications prior to 1963 even required an official filing of "renewal" to extend copyright for more than 28 years. Now, copyright notice is completely optional -- copyright is automatic,at no cost, and free of formalities. A copyright owner may optionally register a claim of copyright in the US Copyright Office (among a very few other countries that allow any sort of registration), creating "evidence" of a claim of ownership. There are procedures for registering "serial works", such as daily cartoons, as well as "collections" that can contain thousands of items by the same author or artist in one registered portfolio. The only time a US author must register is when he or she decides to file a lawsuit for US copyright infringement, which must be filed in federal court. There are also statutory incentives to registration earlier, such as the right to sue for "statutory damages" rather than having to prove "actual" damages.