You already own the copyright the moment you hit the shutter, save the track, or export the video. But registering it – the right way, in the right category – is what turns that ownership into something you can actually enforce. Here’s the plain-language walkthrough.
Seal your work in an envelope, mail it to yourself, and never open it – proof you made it first, right? It’s one of the oldest pieces of creator advice going around, and the U.S. Copyright Office says flatly it does nothing. Here’s what actually protects your work.
A watermark won’t stop a determined thief, but the right mix of visible marks, embedded metadata, Content Credentials, and monitoring makes your images far harder to steal – and far easier to prove are yours. Here’s the plain-language playbook.