Copyrighting my portfolio question.

[weiss]

Hello, i'm finally finished with my conceptual design portfolio and i need to copyright the material, but reading the US Copyright Office's website doe'snt really clear up a basic question I have.

Can I copyright everything in my portfolio under one filing? I have portfolio artwork ranging from background designs to totally unrelated character designs but I thought you could file them all under the same title of say "(insert name)'s Conceptual Design" and you would only have to pay one filing fee.

Also, say you copyright a character design, do you have to refile every future picture you do of that same character or will all your future work involving that character be protected by your original copyright? Thanks for any help you can give.

[Elwell]

Can I copyright everything in my portfolio under one filing? I have portfolio artwork ranging from background designs to totally unrelated character designs but I thought you could file them all under the same title of say "(insert name)'s Conceptual Design" and you would only have to pay one filing fee.
As long as all the work is unpublished it can be filed as a single "collection."
From the copyright office's site (http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ40.html):
REGISTRATION FOR TWO OR MORE WORKS WITH ONE APPLICATION AND FEE

Two or more individual works may be registered with one application and fee as follows:

Unpublished Works

A group of unpublished works may be registered as a collection if all the following conditions are met.

The elements of the collection are assembled in an orderly form.

The combined elements bear a single title identifying the collection as a whole.

The copyright claimant or claimants for each element in the collection are the same.

All the elements are by the same author, or if they are by different authors, at least one author has contributed copyrightable authorship to each element.

NOTE: Works registered as an unpublished collection will be listed in the records of the Copyright Office only under the collection title.