ATTENTION: All PHOTO CONTEST PARTICIPANTS

[Ms. Toad]

9. Just onen addition - ALL photographs are protected by copyright (unless taken by a monkey . . .

(yes, there is a case about that), or the photos are old enough to have passed into the public domain).

Copyright is created simply by taking the photo. Once a work (image, story, song, dance, etc.) is recorded in a form which can be copied, the author of that work owns the copyright. That's it. No need to label it with the word copyright or the copyright symbol. No need to register it. So if you find a photo on the internet, whether it is labeled or not, someone owns the copyright to that photo.

The only exceptions to that are photos which were published long enough ago for the copyright to have passed into the public domain (e.g. like the original Mickey Mouse did this month).

That said, even though it is not legally necessary - it is a good idea to add a copyright notation to your work (Copyright YYYY NAME; Copr. YYYY Name; or © YYYY Name) - where YYYY is the year of first publication, and name is the name of the author (artist - or in some instances the employer). It is also a good idea, if you intend to use the law to enforce your copyright rights, to register your copyright in your works. (You can't file a lawsuit if you haven't registered your work.)