When you publish an e-book, you have to look into copyright issues so that the book’s content is protected. It is vital that the researched content you put into an e-book is not used by someone else without your permission or posed off as theirs. In the United States, e-books copyright laws grant exclusive rights of the book’s content to the author and prevent the author’s work from being misrepresented as that of someone else.

According to the Berne Convention, signed in 1989, copyright notice is not really necessary because every publisher work is automatically copyrighted. Nevertheless, authors decide to use this notice because it identifies them as the copyright owner. The copyright notice displays year of publication. All copyrighted works include three features which are work copyright confirmation, copyright © symbol, and year of publication and name of the copyright owner. Adding of the word “Copyright” before the c and the date is also done for the purpose of impressing the copyright feature.

Most people look into registering their work for copyright protection, although this is not really required because the U.S. Copyright Office states that all e-books published prior to or right after January 1, 1978 are automatically copyright protected. The copyright is enforced for a period of 70 years after author’s death.

Copyright registration enforces ownership of e-books with authors and a public record of copyright is established. If anyone were to use their work without a license or permission, the author can file legal action get statutory damages and also payment for attorney fees. You can register a copyright for your e-book by sending in a copyright application form, with $30 application fees and the e-book copy to the Library of Congress.

The application form can be downloaded from ebook-site.com/ebook-copyrights.html. Ebooks can also be copyrighted by applying for a copyright through the Electronic Copyright Office (eCO).

An online form is available at the site http://www.copyright.gov/eco/notice.html. The form needs to be printed, sent with a copy of the e-book and a fee of $50, through post. Since copyright laws are subject to change, get updates from www.copyright.gov.

For those who don’t know what it is, here is a simple definition of an ebook. An E-book, also called an electronic book, is like a regular book that can be read digitally on laptops, personal computers and other electronic devices. There are a variety of formats for e-books, and unless a fixed format has been determined, one would find them in different formats. The most popular however, is PDF format and almost every platform is able to access and read e-books in PDF formats.

The birth of the e-book goes back 40 years and to be exact to 1971 when it was officially born from the Project Gutenberg. By 1994 the e-book had spread its roots far and wide. Although, during the initial years, e-books were not as prominent as they are now and people were apprehensive about e-books and some were even reluctant to try them out.

Nevertheless the e-book did not remain in the background for long. With the publishers deciding to go digital in 1997, e-books were out of the closet with digital publishing and scientific publications finding a cheaper alternative to printing books with the help of e-books. Today with almost everything being online, e-books have created a niche for themselves and have become quite an indispensable part of people’s lives. With more and more libraries deciding to go online and digitizing their literary possessions, e-books have made things easier by helping digital versions of literature whether fictional or non-fictional or educational on the World Wide Web for all to have the benefit of.

The question of whether the e-book would replace printed books is in the minds of many avid readers and writers; however, the speculation still goes on while the next-generation kids are already finding the ease of using e-books instead of printed ones. Visualize children not having to carry backpacks and book-bags to school and instead have all of their lessons stored in one single unit makes life simpler. The future of books is in e-books and whether one likes it or not, e-books are here to stay.