The Copyright Notice Requirement

A copyright notice is a notice of statutorily prescribed form, placed on copies or phone records of a work that informs the public of the underlying claim to copyright ownership in a published work. When a work is published under the authority of the copyright owner, a notice of copyright may be placed on all publicly distributed copies or phone records. The use of the notice is the responsibility of the copyright owner and does not require permission from, or registration with, the Copyright Office. However, the use of copyright notice is not mandatory. An author of a work owns the copyright to his or her work, simply by virtue of creating the work and the copyright protection of such work is not conditioned on displaying a notice or any such formalities.