If you live in the United States, protecting your creative output just became easier. Today, the US Copyright Office unveiled a new online system, eCO, for registering copyrights. Users can fill out a registration application, pay the registration fee, and upload copies of the work being registered. A Powerpoint tutorial, tip sheet (.pdf) and list of frequently asked questions are available to help newcomers through the process.

Attorney Carolyn Wright, whose practice serves photographers, ticks off the benefits of the new system over the old paper and snail mail process. They include a reduced processing fee ($35 vs. $45) and faster processing time.

BeSpacific posted about the technology that makes the new system possible:

Each Form CO is imprinted with 2-D barcodes that are scanned to
automatically transfer the information contained in the form into an
eCO service request record.

Scrivener's Error offers a few caveats, including the fact that eCO does not support the Safari browser and requires some adjustments to work with Firefox 2.0. More details on the system's browser requirements are available on the eCO FAQ page.

Of course, this streamlined registration system doesn't eliminate the most contentious issues regarding copyright, such as the difficulties creative professionals can run into when their work has been stolen, or appropriated by a powerful entity such as a corporation. On the latter point, Molly Klein offers a report on a recent panel discussion hosted at the Ann Arbor [Michigan] District Library on Digital Culture and Internet Rights. The panelists included music legend Gilberto Gil, who talked about the fact that he was forced to cede rights to his record label at the start of his recording career more than 50 years ago. Gil fought a lengthy battle to regain his publishing rights, and has since released his music under a Creative Commons license.