Copyright Basics: What They Protect (and Why It Matters More Than You Think)

If you’ve ever written a website page, taken a photo for your business, posted a video online, designed a logo concept, or even drafted a training manual for your employees, you’ve created something that can be copied in seconds. Here are the copyright basics, what they protect, and why it matters more than you think.

That’s the modern problem: creativity is easy to steal because duplication is easy. Copyright law is one of the main tools that helps level the playing field.

I’m an attorney at Tucker Law, and while most people know us for injury cases, the truth is the legal world has a common theme: when something important happens, you want to protect yourself before it spirals. With copyrights, the “accident” is usually someone taking your work, passing it off as their own, or using it in a way that costs you money and control.

What copyright actually protects: Copyright protects original creative expression that’s fixed in some tangible form. That includes things like:

Website text, blog posts, and marketing copy
Photos (including product photos and professional headshots)
Videos, reels, and online courses
Music and audio recordings
Books, e-books, PDFs, guides, and manuals
Artwork, illustrations, and graphic designs
Software code (in many situations)

The key idea is “expression,” not just an idea.

An easy analogy: an idea is a recipe concept (“a spicy mango salsa”). The expression is the specific recipe you wrote down with your ingredients, measurements, and steps. Copyright protects your written recipe (expression), not the general concept of mango salsa (idea).

What copyright does NOT protect:

Ideas, concepts, or methods (by themselves)
Facts (like dates, statistics, or historical events)
Titles, short phrases, and slogans (those can sometimes be trademark territory)
General “styles” or vibes (like “a clean modern look”)
Things that are not original (copying from someone else, or purely common elements)

So if you say, “I posted this idea online first,” that doesn’t automatically mean you own it in a way copyright can enforce. What matters is the specific original content you created.

Do you have a copyright automatically?
In the U.S., copyright protection generally exists the moment your original work is created and fixed—written down, saved, recorded, photographed, published, etc.

So yes, you usually have copyright rights without filing anything.

But here’s the practical reality: “I have rights” and “I can enforce rights” are not the same thing.

Why registration matters, even if you already have a copyright.
Copyright registration is like upgrading from “I own this” to “I can actually do something about it.”

Registration can matter because it may:

Make enforcement dramatically easier
Put the world on notice that you’re claiming ownership
Strengthen your position if someone steals your work
Allow certain legal remedies that may not be available otherwise

Think of it like documenting injuries after a crash. You might know you’re hurt, but if you don’t document it, you can get steamrolled later by “prove it” arguments. Registration is part of that “prove it” package.

Who owns the copyright: you, your employee, or your contractor?
Ownership is one of the biggest sources of surprise.

General rule:

If you create it, you usually own it.
If your employee creates it as part of their job, the business typically owns it.
If an independent contractor creates it, the contractor often owns it unless there’s a proper written agreement saying otherwise.

That last one causes real problems. Businesses pay for a logo, a website, brand photos, or video content, and assume they own it. Then they get a nasty email later: “You don’t have rights to use that on merch,” or “Pay me more if you want full usage rights.”

Common real-world copyright problems we see
Here are a few situations that come up constantly:

Someone copied my website text
This happens everywhere—competitors scraping pages, copying FAQs, or lifting entire blog posts. Besides hurting your brand, it can harm your search rankings because duplicate content confuses search engines.
A former vendor is holding my content hostage
Photographers, designers, and marketing agencies sometimes restrict usage rights unless you negotiate them up front.
My images are being used on social media without permission
People assume “it’s online so it’s free.” That’s not how it works.
Someone reposted my video and is making money from it
Especially common with reels, Tik Tok’s, and course content.

What to do if you think someone stole your work
If you suspect infringement, don’t panic—and don’t immediately fire off a furious message that boxes you into a corner. Take smart steps:

Save proof: screenshots, URLs, dates, and copies of the original files
Document your creation: drafts, metadata, invoices, uploads, project files
Avoid public fights: online call-outs can backfire, especially for businesses
Consider a takedown: many platforms have copyright complaint processes (often called DMCA takedowns)
Talk to a lawyer early: the best strategy depends on your goals—remove it, get paid, stop ongoing use, or all of the above

Your content is often your storefront now. If someone copies it, they’re not just stealing words, they’re stealing the trust you earned.

How Tucker Law can help:

If your work has been copied, or you’re trying to make sure your business owns what it’s paying for, we can help you map out a practical plan: what you own, what you need to register, how to stop unauthorized use, and how to put the right agreements in place so you’re not fighting the same battle again next year.

If you’re dealing with a copyright issue, or you want to prevent one, call Tucker Law at 1-800-TUCKERWINS. The earlier you get guidance, the more options you usually have, and the less expensive it is to fix.