By Bernadette H. Carreon
Horizon news staff

The Attorney General’s Office has approved the copyright application for Palau’s Visitors Authority’s artistic logo.
The artistic logo "Palau" written out in the Rock Island script has been granted, according to Christopher Hale, Registrar of Copyrights and Acting Attorney General.
The copyright logo has been protected from infringement since Feb. 5, 2007 under the Palau Copyright Act.
Hale said that a copyright is a bundle of property rights in a creative work.
" a copyright system is designed to promote the works of authors and artists providing civil and criminal penalties for unlicensed reproduction and performance of protected works," Hale said.
Books, magazines, paintings, poems, photographs, songs, lyrics, and movies are all copyrightable.
Hale said that in Palau, works created on-island after Nov.26, 2003, are generally considered protected by copyright law, however to fix a date and time of creation, registration is helpful.
He said that registration is helpful because if a song is written in 2006 and five years from now that someone is selling the digital files without the owner’s permission that it could be proven that the song belongs to the owner.
Hale said registration costs $20 per week and registration forms are available at the Attorney General’s Office.
The law was passed in Nov. 2003. A registration system through a regulation has been put in place since June 2005 and there are currently eight works in he Palau Registry of Copyrights.
Hale added that civil enforcement of copyright violations is usually the first course of action.
The victim can claim either $1,000 in fixed damages for a violation or actual damages and the victim can also seek attorneys’ fees as well as court order to destroy the infringing materials.