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© Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
A copyright protects the artist (author, painter, composer...) from other people stealing his/her work. A copyright is valid until 50 years after the death of the artist.
You are protected by copyright law, merely by including a copyright notice, as part of the work. A sample copyright notice is:
© Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
That's all you need. You are protected legally.
You can register your copyright with the Copyright Office:
Register of Copyrights
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C. 20559-6000
Registering costs $20, and involves filling out a form and sending two copies of your work to the Copyright Office. Contact the Copyright Office to find out which forms you need, and to get the forms for free. Registering will help you prove that you are indeed the artist who produced the original. But, it is not necessary. You are fully protected, without registering.
The Copyright Office says that whether you register or not, you must send two copies of your work (with certain exceptions) to the Library of Congress. It also says that you can be fined, if you don't.
There are other details, which you may need to inquire about: works by more than one author, works in other than printed form, works by a business, works printed regularly in serial form, works created before 1978...
See http://www.loc.gov/copyright.