Under international copyright law, you own the copyright of a body of work the moment that the work is in a tangible format, i.e., it's in the computer or printed, or handwritten on paper. However, every so often, I come across some blog post or a Facebook group message, or something, where a writer is asking about copyright certificates and the like. Amazon is becoming more insistent on obtaining those copyright certificates, and rightly so.
Too many times, I have encountered some horror story where some honest writer has had their precious work taken down from the Amazon sites because some BLEEP has chosen to claim that they own the copyright. If this happens to you, it falls on you to prove the other person is wrong.
To complicate matters, far too many writers choose not to register their copyright with a copyright authority because of the cost. However, these are the writers that run the risk of finding themselves being the victim of some copyright scam.
All writers want to protect their writing as much as possible, and for the most part, people are honest. It's the shady ones that you need to worry about. Here is where taking a few simple steps can save you.
