IANAL, but unfortunately my Virginian friend,
In 1989, the U.S. enacted the Berne Convention Implementation Act, amending the 1976 Copyright Act to conform to most of the provisions of the Berne Convention. As a result, the use of copyright notices has become optional to claim copyright, because the Berne Convention makes copyright automatic.
Exclusive rights held by the owner of a work, that nobody else may use:
- to import or export the work
- to create derivative works (works that adapt the original work)
- to perform or display the work publicly