Myows is a great way to protect your content and an important tool in verifying that you created your works and also for licensing and distributing them safely. It is a digital solution for the digital age.
However, in order to ensure that you can ensure that you have full rights to your content in the courtroom, you need to take extra steps to ensure that your works are fully protected.
If you are a United States citizen or think that you may be forced to take legal action with in the U.S., one of those extra steps is filing a registration with the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO).
Though a work is considered copyrighted the moment it is fixed into a tangible medium of expression, meaning that it is written down or saved to a hard drive, your ability to enforce your rights is limited in the U.S. without first filing a registration.
Consider the following benefits of registration:
- Creates Public Record: Creates a public record of the work in a searchable database.
- Ability to Sue for Copyright Infringement: Without a registration, if you are a U.S. citizen, you can not sue for copyright infringement without registering first.
- Statutory Damages: If you register either before the infirngement or within 3 months of publication, you are eligible for statutory damages, which can be as much as $150,000 per infringement. Without registration, only actual damages are available, meaning the greater of what you lost or the infringer gained.
- Prima Facie Evidence: If registered within 5 years of publication, the registration is considered prima facie evidence of ownership, meaning it is accepted “at first face” by the court.
- Import Restrictions: If desired, you can submit your registered work to the U.S. Customs Service to have them help protect against importation of infringing goods.
What these new rights combine to is give you the maximum amount of protection for your work possible and open up all potential legal avenues to respond to infringement.
The Problem
But while USCO registration has many wonderful and important benefits, there are also several drawbacks and problems. The biggest being that:
- It’s Expensive: It costs $35 per registration even if you do it yourself and, if you use an attorney, it can easily cost between $500 and $1,000.
- It’s Complicated: Filing a registration with the USCO is more than doable for an individual, but it requires a lot of learning and time. First-time filers run the risk of making mistakes and can expect to spend several hours learning the system.
- It’s Slow: Even under the best of circumstances, it will take at least 6 months to receive your certificate. Though the registration is effective the date it is received, without the certificate of registration, you can not enforce your rights.
Fortunately, there is help and Myows has teamed up with CopyByte to bring you the best deal possible.
The Solution
CopyByte is a copyright and plagiarism consulting service that offers USCO registrations among its services. Normally, this service costs $149 per registration, already a steep discount over what attorneys normally charge.
However, as a Myows customer, you are eligible for a discount of $25, bringing the total cost, including filing fee, down to $124.
Even better, if you are a customer of Myows paid plan, you receive an additional $25 off, bringing the total cost down to just $99.
For the one flat fee, CopyByte will do the following:
- Prepare all relevant documents.
- Prepare the submissions as required.
- File the registration.
- Pay the filing fee.
- Handle any and all additional correspondence with the USCO as needed.
In short, you provide your information and an electronic copy of your files, CopyByte handles the rest. Best of all, we work to streamline the process as much as possible, ensuring that you get your certificate as quickly as possible.
Contact Us for Help
If you’re interested in having CopyByte handle your USCO retgistration, contact us and mention Myows in the subject line.
We will work with you to collect the needed information and get your registration filed as soon as possible.
Likewise, if you have any questions about the registrations procedure, do not hesitate to ask us.
