“I know this may not be a technology question in the conventional sense, but it is technical. Maybe you can help. I’m producing my own CD and wondering if I really need to go through the hassle and fees to register my work? To what extent is it protected anyway?”
We’re not attorneys here so it’s tough to really quantify this for you. As soon as you put your work on tape, paper, CD, etc., it is considered to be fixed, so it is protected by copyright law. However, laws are necessarily subject to judgment and interpretation. If you created a work in the privacy of your home, the burden of proof as to when that work was created is on you. You’d probably be pretty upset with yourself if you ended up losing a lawsuit because you did not want to pay a small fee and take a few minutes filling out and mailing the copyright registration form.
It’s really pretty easy to register a copyright. It’s done through the United States Copyright Office, a branch of the Library of Congress. You can obtain forms over the phone or Internet. You simply fill out the form and send in a copy of the work with the $20 registration fee. This copy can be in the form of a tape, CD, video, or a handwritten or printed manuscript. After a couple of months you will receive a copy of your completed form with a stamped seal of the U.S. Copyright Office indicating completed registration and full copyright protection. Your protection does begin on the day your form is received by the Copyright Office, as long as it is filled out correctly.