Site: nolo.com
... lore: To obtain a federal copyright protection on your creative work, the story goes, all you must do ... How did this rumor begin? ... It is true that to obtain a copyright over a creative work, all that you must do is reduce the work to ... It's just that, to actually do anything with that copyright, you need a formal registration with the ... Office will review it and then, hopefully, approve your application and issue you a formal copyright certificate ...