Question: Can you claim copyright protection in the United States for foreign works?
Answer: You can claim copyright protection for all your unpublished literary works, regardless of your nationality or where you live. For unpublished literary works copyright protection is not restricted to the United States. Published means making copies of your work available to the public for a charge or for free.
Copyright Protection For Published Works
Published literary works are eligible for copyright protection in the United States if any one of the following conditions is met:- On the date of first publication, one or more of the authors is a national or living in the United States
- On the date of first publication, one or more of the authors is a national, living, or sovereign authority of a treaty party. A treaty party is a country or intergovernmental organization other than the United States that is a party to an international agreement.
- On the date of first publication, one or more of the authors or is a stateless person wherever that person may be living.
- The work is first published in the United States. The Library of Congress considers "first published" as being within thirty days of being published somewhere else.
- The work is first published in a foreign nation that on the date of first publication is a treaty party. The Library of Congress considers "first published" as being within thirty days of being published in a non-treaty country.
