Can I/how do I exert my own copyright over a work I have digitised?
Answer Copyright in any work that you have created (apart from that whilst employed – subject to contract) is automatic as long as you meet the three specifications in FAQ 1 answer. You do not have to register the work (indeed there is no agency to do so), pay a fee or undergo any type of bureaucratic process. You do not even have to attach the internationally recognised Copyright symbol (©). However if you were to put the copyright symbol on the piece of work, it serves as a useful reminder to others that what they are looking at (and thinking of copying!) is protected by copyright. A typical copyright statement might look like: © 1999 University of Bristol All rights reserved Because there is no bureaucratic process to prove that you are the copyright owner it can sometimes be difficult to prove ownership. However in extreme cases, there are ways of proving that your work existed at a particular point in time, which could be used as evidence in the case of copyright disputes. The fir
