Copyrights are protections provided by U.S. law to authors of original works of authorship in a fixed medium.
Copyright Office ’21 [U.S. Copyright Office; September; “Circular 1: Copyright Basics,” https://copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf]
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the authors of “original works of authorship” that are fixed in a tangible form of expression. An original work of authorship is a work that is independently created by a human author and possesses at least some minimal degree of creativity. A work is “fixed” when it is captured (either by or under the authority of an author) in a sufficiently permanent medium such that the work can be perceived, reproduced, or communicated for more than a short time. Copyright protection in the United States exists automatically from the moment the original work of authorship is fixed.1