What is automatic copyright protection?

There is no official registration system for copyright in the UK and most other parts of the world. There are no forms to fill in and no fees to pay to get copyright protection. You do not need to register copyright - there is no official registration system. This is why protection is said to be automatic. So long as you have created a work that qualifies for copyright protection, that is it falls into one of the categories of material protected by copyright, then you will have copyright protection without having to do anything to establish this. It is a requirement of various international conventions on copyright that copyright should be automatic with no need to register.

Through the UK's membership of these international conventions, a copyright work created in the UK is automatically protected in most parts of the world. This can be very beneficial to a person who creates a copyright work, that is worldwide protection for the creation without having to do anything. However, copyright owners can take certain precautions to help protect their rights.