- Hi everyone, I'm Attorney Aiden Durham
with 180 Law Co in Denver, Colorado.
And welcome back to All Up In Yo' Business.
(upbeat music)
On this episode of All Up In Yo' Business
we're gonna talk a new development
in the exciting world of copyrights
and how it might be able to help you in protecting
your blogs and other online content.
But first, before we get into it
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and be sure to check the description
for links to additional information and other resources
and all kinds of fun stuff too.
So a few months ago
actually, quite recently
the copyright office here in the United States
introduced a new option for registration called
the Group Registration of Short Online Literary Works.
Also known as GRTX.
That's how they're referring to it GRTX.
This GRTX option will allow you to register
short online literary work such as blogs
social media posts, online application or online articles
things like that
all on one application
Specifically you can register at least two
but up to 50 short online literary works
in one application and with one application fee.
Which is a pretty big deal.
And even though they're all on one application
each work will still be registered as a separate work.
So they won't all be one big work together.
Each one will still get its own
separate copyright registration.
This is great for a number of reasons.
First off definitely the cost.
It's gonna save a lot of money.
So the GRTX application fee is 65 bucks.
And again you can register up to 50 separate works
on one application as compared that
to if we're doing them on each separate application
each one's its own application has its own application fee.
If it's 65 bucks per and we're doing 50 of them
that's what over 3,000 dollars that we'd be paying
in just the application fees
versus now with this GRTX application
it's just one fee of 65 bucks
regardless of how many works are included
in the application.
It's also just gonna make the whole process a lot easier
rather than dealing with 50 separate applications.
It's all gonna be in one.
So it's gonna make the process a bit
smoother and easier overall.
Now these registrations
they're gonna cover the copyrightable text in the works.
So if we're talking about blogs
it's gonna cover and protect the copyrightable text
in the blog
not any images or any other elements of the blog
but just copyrightable texts.
And then you'll have separate damages
separate legal rights for each work if it's infringed.
So rather than needing copyright infringement
on the entire catalog of blogs
you can still have a separate action
for copyright infringement for each individual work.
So like I said
this only applies to short online literary works.
So what is short online literary works mean?
Short means it has at least 50 words
and up to 17,500 words.
So if it falls between that
then it's going to be considered
a short online literary work.
At least 50 words so which is really quite small.
So it doesn't have to be full blown articles
full blown blogs.
This can apply to articles on social media
social media posts
as long as it's at least 50 words and up to 17,500 words.
And then online literary work means
that it was first published as part of a website
or online platform.
So this can include online newspapers
your own blogs, social media websites
social media platforms and things of that nature.
So a few examples of what would probably
fall under this short online literary works category
would be like poems if you publish them on your blog
or on some other online publication.
Poems, short stories, articles, essays
columns, blog posts, social media posts
again, as long as it's first published online
and falls within that 50 to 17,500 characters
or words rather
then it'll most likely be included
in what you can register under this GRTX application.
A few other like important things to remember with this
and to keep in mind.
Again, I said this initially about the claim
your registration, your copyright
is only going to apply to the copyrightable text
in the publication.
So if your blog or your article has images in it
those won't be covered under this copyright registration.
It will apply just to the text of the article.
All of the works must be published online.
So you can't do 25 blogs that were online
and then 25 that were published elsewhere.
All of the works much must be published online.
All of those that are published
must be published within three months.
Within three consecutive months of each other.
So let's say you've been blogging.
Let's say you're a blogger.
You have a blog that spans posts from a whole year.
You can only register the ones that are within
three consecutive months on one application.
So posts from January through March can be one application
April, July, another one and so on and so forth.
But the point is all of the works that are registered
or are on this application must have been posted
and published online within three consecutive months.
And then the text must be written by the same author
or joint authors.
So you can't register multiple works
by multiple different authors.
If there are different authors
they have to all be the same on all the articles.
There are a few other requirements that go into this
but it's kind of outside the scope of this video
but those are the most important things to keep in mind
with these GRTX applications.
So a few types of works that won't be included in this
would be like emails.
Your emails you won't be able to register
under these GRTX applications
podcasts again, cause they're not literary.
It needs to be a short literary work.
Podcasts, computer programs, compilations
and collective works
again aren't going to be included in this.
A collective work for those of you don't know
is kind of like a assembly of the works of different authors
combined into one.
So those types of things again, because with the GRTX
each work has to have the same author or authors.
So if each one has different authors
then it won't apply under the GRTX application.
So if you want to take advantage of this
it's a relatively easy process in a lot of situations
you would just complete the application
for the short online literary works
on the copyright.gov website
that's where copyrights are registered
with the U.S. copyright office.
It's copyright.gov.
So you'd complete that application
pay the filing fee and then you have to upload
a copy of each work
along with a fillable form that specifies the names
the titles, the publication dates
give specifics for each individual work.
So they're still gonna ask details
about each individual work
and each one does need to be uploaded
along with the application
but again it's all still gonna be on one application.
So why do we want to do this?
Why does this matter?
Why would we care?
Under copyright law in the U. S.
your work is protected under copyright law
as soon as it is created and fixed in a tangible form.
So with your blog
as soon as you create the blog and you post the article
there is some copyright protection that applies.
And you don't have to register a copyright
in order to receive that protection.
It's just automatically there by default
and registration isn't necessary.
But it can still be very beneficial
to register the copy rights
even if it's not required for copyright protection.
Namely it creates a public record of your copyright
and the facts that go along with your copyright
such as the dates associated with it
publication dates, all of those things.
You've probably heard about something like
the poor man's copyright
where you mail a copy of the work to yourself
so you have a date stamp of like when it was created.
A lot of people think that this is a good work around
for copyright registration.
It's not, it does nothing.
It's not a substitute for actual copyright registration
and doesn't give you any actual like legal benefit
or anything so again
this is a way to actually do that
and have verifiable public record
of the facts around your copyrighted work.
You also have to register the copyright
if you wanna sue somebody for infringement.
So even though you don't need to register it
to have those rights
you do need to register it if you want to
enforce those rights.
And when you do
that registration makes you eligible for statutory damages
and attorney's fees in an infringement claim
which you wouldn't necessarily
otherwise get without registration.
And finally, if you register the copyright
within five years of publication
so within five years from when the work is published
if you register that copy right
then that gives you really strong evidence
of the facts of your copyright registration.
And it gives you like a rebuttable presumption
that you own the copyright and then the copyright is valid.
So again, even the registration isn't necessary
it's often a really good idea
and carries along a lot of benefits.
So who would this be right for?
Who's a good person or a business to take advantage
of this GRTX application for copyright registration?
I don't think that all of us
entrepreneurs who may have a blog
or may publish things on social media.
I don't know that we all need to rush out
and start doing this right away.
I think primarily this is gonna be super beneficial
for people who this is their profession.
This is their career.
So professional bloggers.
So that's what you do
if your business is putting out blog articles
then this is probably going to be something
that should be important to you
because that is your work.
That's everything and you should wanna protect it.
Professional writers something where this is
what you're doing
this is your livelihood.
But of course as with everything
it's always a good idea to talk to an attorney
and figure out if this is something
that you should be concerned about
if registering your copyrights
should be a priority for you
and if this GRTX application will be an option.
That's all for this episode folks.
Drop a comment below
let me know what you think.
And again, don't forget to check the description
for additional information and resources
and my contact info is there too
if you need help figuring out
if you should worry about registering copyrights
for your short online literary works.
Thank you all so much for watching.
I'm Aiden Durham and I'll see you next time.
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