Should I Consider Registering Copyrighted Material

Problem with US Copyright Office Conditions

[PaulPA]

Not sure how to go with this. I'm writing a series of articles that when combined could serve as an e-book. Right now these are being released one at a time on my website over several months. I'm considering filing US Copyright Office forms but I have some concerns.

First, it would seem that I will need to copyright each article separately since some have been released and I do not have them all written in advance. Second, I'm concerned with this statement on the US Copyright Office website regarding online works:

Many works transmitted online are revised or updated frequently. For individual works, however, there is no blanket registration available to cover revisions published on multiple dates. A revised version for each daily revision may be registered separately, provided the revisions constitute copyrightable authorship. A separate application filing fee would be required for each separately published update.

Since I may be updating these articles before creating the e-book I'm wondering what advantage the registered copyright will have given all the potential updates and what could be an expensive process ($30 per registration).

[hunderdown]

If your revisions aren't substantial, registering still provides substantial protection.

And what registering does for you is allow you to recover statutory damages in the event of infringement--meaning real money.

Others may correct me on this, but I believe that you'd be in good shape if you just registered all the articles when they were done....

[PaulPA]

When they were done meaning at time of completion of each article or when the entire series is completed?

[hunderdown]

When the series ic completed, as single registration.

[PaulPA]

Might be a good strategy though I was under the impression there is a 3 month limit from time of publication until time of copyright registration if one wants full protection.