The legal protection that gives you exclusive rights to your creative work the moment you write it down.
Copyright is automatic legal protection that grants authors exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, perform, and create derivative works from their writing. In most countries, copyright kicks in the instant you put original work into a fixed form - meaning the moment you type a sentence, it's yours. Registration with a government office (like the US Copyright Office) isn't required but strengthens your legal position if someone infringes. Copyright typically lasts for the author's lifetime plus 70 years.
Understanding copyright protects you on both sides. It means nobody can legally copy your novel and sell it as their own. But it also means you need to respect other writers' copyrights when you're drawing on existing work, using quotes, or writing anything that gets close to someone else's creation. Ignorance isn't a legal defense.
Entered the public domain in the US on January 1, 2021, after 95 years of copyright protection. This immediately spawned adaptations, retellings, and a Nick Carraway murder mystery.
Margaret Mitchell's estate sued Randall for writing a parody retelling of Gone with the Wind from a slave's perspective. The case became a landmark for fair use and creative freedom.
Most Holmes stories are in the public domain, but the Doyle estate argued that later stories kept the character copyrighted. A 2020 lawsuit over Holmes showing emotion was eventually dismissed.
Copyright is automatic upon creation in most countries. The 'poor man's copyright' of mailing yourself a manuscript has no legal standing. Registration helps in court but isn't required to own the rights.
There's no magic percentage. Copyright infringement depends on whether you've taken the 'heart' of the original work. Courts look at the nature and substantiality of what was copied, not a simple number.
Copyright protects creative expression (your novel, your poem). Trademarks protect brand identifiers (your pen name's logo). Patents protect inventions. They're different systems.
Content on the internet is still copyrighted unless explicitly released under a permissive license or in the public domain. A photo on someone's blog is just as copyrighted as a published novel.
Pull up the copyright page of three books on your shelf. Compare what information each includes: the year, the rights holder, the publisher, any reproduction warnings. Then draft a copyright page for your own work-in-progress. What year and name would you use? Would you include a Creative Commons license or keep all rights reserved?