Nathan Bransford - The Forums

So I copyrighted my first draft of my MS as soon as it was done so that I could hand it out to my family and friends without fear of the story getting stolen. But now, after a healthy dose of reviews and insight, I'm barreling through the edits and re-writes and plan on being done the second draft within a month or two. My question is this: Since there are many changes that I have made with the story, but the overall message, characters, and plot has stayed the same, do I need to re-copyright the story to protect it against moochers? Or will my current copyright on the first draft hold true to all other drafts?

Intellectual property is automatically "under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device (Copyright Office)."

For more detail and answers to your other questions, visit the U.S. Copyright Office website. The answers are there at length and specific to each of your concerns.

U.S. Copyright Office. "FAQs." "When is my work protected." http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq