1 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:15,710 Hey there, and welcome back to another episode of On Your Terms and this series of Sam's 2 00:00:15,710 --> 00:00:21,290 Sidebar, where we tackle your essential questions about starting and growing a legally 3 00:00:21,290 --> 00:00:24,530 protected online business in ten minutes or less. So, 4 00:00:24,530 --> 00:00:28,940 this week you'll get a legal tip all about whether or not you're allowed to use that fun 5 00:00:28,940 --> 00:00:33,530 little C with the circle around it, otherwise known as the copyright symbol, or the 6 00:00:33,530 --> 00:00:36,380 copyright emoji if you have an iPhone. So, 7 00:00:36,590 --> 00:00:39,890 this week's question was submitted by listener Henry. 8 00:00:39,890 --> 00:00:45,110 Henry asked the very good question, Do you have to have something registered with the U.S 9 00:00:45,110 --> 00:00:49,220 . Copyright Office to use that delightful copyright symbol? Well, 10 00:00:49,250 --> 00:00:51,860 first of all, Henry, I love that you called it delightful. 11 00:00:52,550 --> 00:00:55,010 So, here's the deal, no. 12 00:00:55,010 --> 00:00:58,850 No, you don't have to have something registered to use that copyright symbol. 13 00:00:58,940 --> 00:01:03,200 Does that qualify me for shortest lawyer answer to a question ever? 14 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:05,990 I feel like I should kind of get an award for that one. You 15 00:01:05,990 --> 00:01:10,610 can use the copyright symbol with or without having registered your content that you're 16 00:01:10,610 --> 00:01:12,560 putting it on. 17 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:16,880 If you haven't registered your content with the United States Copyright Office, you can 18 00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:18,980 still use the copyright symbol. 19 00:01:18,980 --> 00:01:22,180 If you do go ahead and register your content with the U.S. 20 00:01:22,180 --> 00:01:24,290 Copyright Office, you use the same symbol. 21 00:01:24,290 --> 00:01:27,230 There's no new symbol available to you. There's 22 00:01:27,230 --> 00:01:33,500 a big but here, a huge but, just slapping the copyright symbol on your content, or your 23 00:01:33,500 --> 00:01:39,290 documents, your freebies, your videos is not the same as actually registering your 24 00:01:39,290 --> 00:01:41,150 content. It's not equivalent. 25 00:01:41,150 --> 00:01:46,670 So, it's not like if I register or don't register, I get the same level of protection. 26 00:01:46,670 --> 00:01:50,330 No, no. Henry's good question was about whether or not he could use that delightful 27 00:01:50,330 --> 00:01:52,940 copyright symbol, the C with the circle around it. 28 00:01:52,940 --> 00:01:57,500 But it's not about whether or not it's equal. So, 29 00:01:57,500 --> 00:02:02,960 here's the deal, you get additional protection from registering your content, your course 30 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:08,750 materials, your videos, your PDFs, your audio lessons, podcast episodes, blog post than 31 00:02:08,750 --> 00:02:12,530 if you just put the copyright symbol on your stuff without registering. 32 00:02:12,530 --> 00:02:17,310 So, you definitely get additional legal protection from registering. 33 00:02:17,310 --> 00:02:22,670 I go into this in way more detail in Episode 44 of the podcast, so you can head back and 34 00:02:22,670 --> 00:02:24,230 check that one out. But 35 00:02:24,230 --> 00:02:28,540 I've got one more big but if you're willing to hear me out. 36 00:02:28,540 --> 00:02:30,380 It's also not practical. 37 00:02:30,380 --> 00:02:33,080 Like, I'm a businesswoman at the end of the day, I say this all the time. 38 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:35,370 And there's like lawyer Sam and normal Sam. 39 00:02:35,370 --> 00:02:39,410 And normal Sam is around, like, way more often than lawyer Sam, thank goodness. 40 00:02:39,410 --> 00:02:45,350 But it's also not practical to register every single piece of content that you create in 41 00:02:45,350 --> 00:02:46,790 your business. 42 00:02:47,270 --> 00:02:52,010 Could you imagine, I would have to have a full time, full staff to register every single 43 00:02:52,010 --> 00:02:53,450 piece of content that I put out there. 44 00:02:53,450 --> 00:02:56,240 I'm a content machine. So, 45 00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:57,890 what do we do then in those cases? 46 00:02:57,890 --> 00:03:02,330 If I can't register every piece of content and I know that registering gives me 47 00:03:02,330 --> 00:03:06,560 additional protection, but it's also not practical, what do I do? What 48 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:09,200 you do is use what I call my copyright formula. 49 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:13,490 So, that's where you use the C with the circle around it, the symbol, because now you know 50 00:03:13,490 --> 00:03:17,960 that you can use that even if you haven't registered, followed by the year of 51 00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:22,890 publication. So, that's the year that you first created this thing. It's 52 00:03:22,890 --> 00:03:26,750 what lawyers will call you fixed it in a tangible medium of expression. 53 00:03:26,750 --> 00:03:28,490 So, in other words, you kind of created this thing. 54 00:03:28,490 --> 00:03:30,650 It's not just living in your brain. 55 00:03:30,650 --> 00:03:34,580 Now, it's living on a piece of paper, in a Google Doc, on your website, whatever, on 56 00:03:34,580 --> 00:03:40,970 Instagram. So, the year of publication, followed by your name, or if you've registered a business, if 57 00:03:40,970 --> 00:03:43,250 you have a business, put your business's name. 58 00:03:43,250 --> 00:03:47,720 So, again, you would use my copyright formula to put on the bottom of any documents. 59 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:50,600 You should put this on the bottom of everything, whether you register or not. 60 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:55,790 But if you haven't registered stuff, you still want to use this copyright formula on the 61 00:03:55,790 --> 00:03:58,430 bottom of documents and videos and all that kind of stuff. 62 00:03:58,430 --> 00:04:05,000 C with a circle, year of publication, your name/business name. So, 63 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:11,930 if I created a freebie today, I would put C with the circle around it 2022 Sam Vander 64 00:04:11,930 --> 00:04:15,980 Wielen LLC, because that's the name of my company and that's the name of the company that 65 00:04:16,490 --> 00:04:18,020 owns the content. 66 00:04:18,020 --> 00:04:22,100 Because, remember, if we have an LLC, we want to put ourselves under that LLC's 67 00:04:22,100 --> 00:04:26,410 protection. So, the content that we've created now is under the business's name, and 68 00:04:26,420 --> 00:04:28,610 that's smart for you, so you want to have that. 69 00:04:28,610 --> 00:04:31,760 And I would put that on the bottom of every single page of every single thing that I 70 00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:36,890 create. It's a really good way to put people on notice that you've created something and you're 71 00:04:36,890 --> 00:04:38,450 claiming ownership to it. 72 00:04:38,450 --> 00:04:43,010 You're declaring a date stamp, so that four years from now, they can't say that they 73 00:04:43,010 --> 00:04:45,140 wrote it first. There 74 00:04:45,140 --> 00:04:49,430 are so many things that you can and can't do with all the different intellectual property 75 00:04:49,430 --> 00:04:54,920 symbols, like the registered trademark symbol, the TM, the SM, the copyright symbol, and 76 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:58,550 that's why I actually did an entire podcast episode for you all about what the 77 00:04:58,550 --> 00:05:03,680 intellectual property symbols are, what they mean, when you can use them, and when you 78 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:05,990 can't, and how they actually work to protect you. 79 00:05:05,990 --> 00:05:10,040 So, that's Episode 44 of my podcast, On Your Terms. 80 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:12,920 Make sure you go back and you listen to that one if you haven't yet. It's 81 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,250 also why I teach about, not only the symbols, but how to actually protect your 82 00:05:16,250 --> 00:05:19,880 intellectual property inside of my signature program, the Ultimate Bundle. 83 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:24,710 I teach all of my members how to legally protect their content, how to use other people's 84 00:05:24,710 --> 00:05:29,120 content safely, and when it's the right time to register your trademarks and your 85 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:33,860 copyrights. So, protecting your online business is so much more than just copyright and 86 00:05:33,860 --> 00:05:37,880 trademarks. I want you to download your free, legally legit checklist where I teach you 87 00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:42,380 about registering your business, going over business insurance, scope of practice, and 88 00:05:42,380 --> 00:05:44,150 how to get paid. Thank 89 00:05:44,150 --> 00:05:46,930 you so much for joining me for Sam's Sidebar. 90 00:05:46,930 --> 00:05:51,110 You can find the links to everything I talked about in today's mini episode down below. 91 00:05:51,110 --> 00:05:55,370 Check out the show notes for those related blog posts, resources, and my full episodes of 92 00:05:55,370 --> 00:05:56,570 On Your Terms. 93 00:05:56,570 --> 00:06:01,370 As always, if you want me to answer your question on a future episode of Sam's Sidebar, 94 00:06:01,370 --> 00:06:04,210 just make sure you submit it using the link below. 95 00:06:04,220 --> 00:06:06,550 I've got everything linked down below for you. 96 00:06:06,550 --> 00:06:11,530 With that, I can't wait to chat with you next week. Thanks 97 00:06:11,530 --> 00:06:13,990 so much for listening to the On Your Terms Podcast. 98 00:06:13,990 --> 00:06:17,890 Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to 99 00:06:17,890 --> 00:06:22,870 podcasts. You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more 100 00:06:22,870 --> 00:06:25,960 at samvanderwielen.com/podcast. You 101 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:29,740 can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal workshop, 102 00:06:29,740 --> 00:06:34,560 Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business, at samvanderwielen.com. 103 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:39,100 And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram, @samvanderwielen, and send 104 00:06:39,100 --> 00:06:39,850 me a DM to say 105 00:06:39,850 --> 00:06:50,370 hi. Just 106 00:06:50,370 --> 00:06:55,290 remember that although I am a attorney, I am not your attorney and I am not offering you 107 00:06:55,290 --> 00:06:56,880 legal advice in today's episode. 108 00:06:56,880 --> 00:07:01,590 This episode and all of my episodes are informational and educational only. 109 00:07:01,590 --> 00:07:05,940 It is not a substitute for seeking out your own advice from your own lawyer. 110 00:07:05,940 --> 00:07:08,790 And please keep in mind that I can't offer you legal advice. 111 00:07:08,790 --> 00:07:10,810 I don't ever offer any legal services. 112 00:07:10,810 --> 00:07:13,770 But I think I offer some pretty good information.