How to Fill Out a "TX" Copyright Application Form

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Nathan Boehme, writer and film director with Expert Village, and this series is all about copyrights. In this clip I'm going to teach you how to fill out the form labeled "tx", which is the form used to copyright all literary work. Here we go. So first off leave the top right hand corner untouched, that's not for you to fill out, that's for the official copyright office to take care of. Moving on down to section one, title of the work. Simply fill in the title of the work, whether it be the title of your screen play, the title of your poem whatever it might be just write the title on that line. Moving on down to section two, name of the author, should be obvious enough, that's your name, goes in right there. Right next to it, date of birth, your birthday. And assuming your not the author of the material the year that the author passed away right next to it. Right next to it we have the author's nationality simply right whatever nationality, citizen of, in this case United States. And then right next to that on the right hand side was this author's contribution to the work anonymous or pseudonymous. You would check the box yes only if the author wished to remain anonymous in which case the copyright seems rather pointless. Or pseudonymous meaning they use a stage or pen name. Check yes if they did, otherwise check no. Right below are columns B and C and this is assuming that there are more than one author on a particular piece of material. Such as more than one writer on a script, more than one writer for a novel. If there were more than one this is the section you would fill out the additional information for those authors. The same as you did just above. Moving on down to section three, year of which this creation of work was completed. Simply write the year it was completed. In this case this year. Moving on down to section four copyright claimants. Name and address must be given even if the claimant is the same as the author given in space two. If your not the author and your filing it anyway, this is where you would put your name and address. As apposed two section two where you would put the authors name. On the second page, in sections five, six, and seven, all of these assume that this is the second time that you have registered this material, and that you are simply making updates. If that's the case then you obviously all ready know how to register for copyright and you don't need my help. The sections themselves are fairly self explanatory. Moving on down to the bottom, section eight, certification. I, the undersigned hereby certify that I am the... you check one of the following, author, other copyright claimant, owner of exclusive rights, or authorized agent of. Check whichever box is appropriate to you. The rest is fairly simple. You type and print your name down at the bottom, place your signature, date, and that's it. That's all there is to it. "