Do You Want to Copywrite or Copyright? There IS a Difference!
The Grammar Guru keeps coming across this unbelievable error in her excursions through both online and print media. She doesn’t really understand why there is confusion between these two terms, but she thought that she ought, perhaps, to try to clear it up anyway.
Copyright. This is the registration that confirms that an author’s work is his or her own, original, creative piece, and that only the author (or other copyright holder) is permitted to make copies of the work — i.e., the author has the right to copy the piece. The copyright holder must grant reprint permission to anyone else who wishes to copy and/or distribute the work.
The copyright notice (which comprises the copyright symbol, the year of creation/registration, and the author or copyright holder’s name) informs other people that the work is protected by copyright law.
Copyright can serve as a noun, verb, or adjective.
Noun: She holds the copyright to this poem.
Verb: Will you copyright this play?
Adjective: Is this a copyrighted article?
Copywrite. To copy-write is to compose articles for a publication, especially for a newspaper. It is properly two words, although hyphenation is becoming more common, and, in another decade or so, it will probably be a fully compound word.