A copyright protects a literary, musical, dramatic, choreographic, pictoral or graphic, audiovisual, or architectural work, or a sound recording, from being reproduced without the permission of the copyright owner.
Subject to certain limitations, the owner of a copyright has the sole right to authorize reproduction of the work, creation of a work derived from the work, distribution of copies of the work, or public performance or display of the work.
While copyrights don’t need to be filed with the United States Copyright Office (USCO) to be created, much like trademarks, the owner receives numerous benefits such as legal presumption of the copyright nationwide.