Editing Copyright (section)

=== Copyright notice ===
{{Main |Copyright notice }}
[[File:Copyright.svg|thumb|A copyright symbol used in copyright notice]]
[[File:Vitprägel.jpg|thumb|A copyright symbol embossed on a piece of paper]]

Before 1989, United States law required the use of a copyright notice, consisting of the [[copyright symbol]] (©, the letter '''C''' inside a circle; Unicode {{unichar|00A9}}), the abbreviation "Copr.", or the word "Copyright", followed by the year of the first publication of the work and the name of the copyright holder.<ref>{{USPL|94|553|Copyright Act of 1976}}, 90 Stat. 2541, §&nbsp;401(a) (19 October 1976)</ref><ref>{{USPL |100 |568 |The Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 (BCIA)}}, 102 Stat. 2853, 2857. One of the changes introduced by the BCIA was to section&nbsp;401, which governs copyright notices on published copies, specifying that notices "may be placed on" such copies; prior to the BCIA, the statute read that notices "shall be placed on all" such copies. An analogous change was made in section&nbsp;402, dealing with copyright notices on phonorecords.</ref> Several years may be noted if the work has gone through substantial revisions. The proper copyright notice for sound recordings of musical or other audio works is a [[sound recording copyright symbol]] (℗, the letter&nbsp;'''P''' inside a circle, Unicode {{unichar|2117}}), which indicates a sound recording copyright, with the letter&nbsp;'''P''' indicating a "[[phonorecord]]". In addition, the phrase ''[[All rights reserved]]'' which indicates that the copyright holder reserves, or holds for their own use was once required to assert copyright, but that phrase is now legally obsolete. Almost everything on the Internet has some sort of copyright attached to it. Whether these things are watermarked, signed, or have any other sort of indication of the copyright is a different story however.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age. |last=Taylor |first=Astra |publisher=Picador |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-250-06259-8 |location=New York City, New York, US |pages=144–145 }}</ref>

In 1989 the United States enacted the ''[[Berne Convention Implementation Act]]'', amending the Copyright Act of 1976 to conform to most of the provisions of the Berne Convention. As a result, the use of copyright notices has become optional to claim copyright, because the Berne Convention makes copyright automatic.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |title=U.S. Copyright Office – Information Circular |access-date=7 July 2012 }}</ref> However, the lack of notice of copyright using these marks may have consequences in terms of reduced damages in an infringement lawsuit&nbsp;– using notices of this form may reduce the likelihood of a defense of "innocent infringement" being successful.<ref>[[17 U.S.C.]]{{UnitedStatesCodeSec |17 |401(d) }}</ref>