I am not a lawyer. I am an author who has filed for copyright in the past. If anything is unclear, get a lawyer and / or talk to the copyright office. https://copyright.gov/ https://copyright.gov/registration/ https://copyright.gov/registration/literary-works/ https://copyright.gov/about/fees.html I first registered a book for copyright in 2005. There have been changes to the process :) I have not read through all of the pages here - please read for yourself and / or get a lawyer. My copyrighted books are how to with words and pictures. I submitted them as literary works. Way back then, paper forms were the only method, but it looks like they prefer electronic filing now. Electronic filing is $45 / paper filing is $125. Both are cheap to keep your stuff yours. My understanding is that if you don't have an actual copyright, it is impossible to win in court. What I plan on doing for content that I care about and want to copyright: Create a book with text description of my characters and sketches / drawings of them. Write the story in book format and add images as the story unfolds. -- Filing copyright for a script is different. -- Print the book and comb bind it. Submit an electronic registration. There are some books that are sketches of the art for computer games. You don't ever have to sell your book. If you get popular, write a nicer book and copyright and sell it :) I think if you go with the paper filing, they put a copy of your book in The Library of Congress, which is very cool :) I don't know how AI is handled. If you include AI images or text in your book, find out what needs to be done before you submit (and perhaps get in trouble). There are also ways to submit video, but I have never done that. If someone wants to pirate a video and put it on youtube major film studios can't seem to stop them.

The reason for the season