You wrote it, designed it, filmed it, or paid someone to. So it's yours, right? Not always, and the gaps are where creators lose money.

You own the copyright to original work the moment you fix it in a real form, the second you save the file. You don't have to register to own it. What you gain by registering with the Copyright Office is the ability to actually enforce it and to win stronger damages if someone copies you.

The two traps. First, work you paid for. Hire a freelancer to make your logo or video without the right contract terms, and they may own it, not you, even though you paid. Second, work you borrowed. A song clip, a stock image, a font, each carries its own license, and "I found it online" has never been permission.

Copyright protects your actual expression, the specific words, images, or sounds, not the underlying idea, so others can cover the same topic but not copy your piece.

Knowing what you own, and fixing the contracts that quietly hand it away, is where this gets real. We help creators sort that out, free, if you qualify.