i have a question???

i wanted to know if u send in the money for a copywrite does the money cover all the drawings that u send in and the drawings u create after the other drawings have been sent i'm not sure how that works and i'd like to get my friends adn mine drawings copywrited if u know how this works please let me know thanks
*~~HARLEYQUINN~~*

©Your Name Here

I'm not aware of there being a fee...
©2006________ or ©________ 2006
is well enough to establish copyright.
But I suppose if there are lawyers...

Yes, it would cover all the cards, the cover card, the box and instruction booklet--basically what you send in is covered. The deck is a 'set' so the copyright applies to all.

Technically your creation would be automatically considered copyrighted under your names, but for legal purposes you do need to send in the $30 fee and the form. This stands up in any court of law here in the USA as well as all countries who've signed the agreement to honor US Copyrights.

Here's the site: http://www.copyright.gov/forms/
Tarot decks would be using form VA, the short form.
Here's the fee structure (you ONLY need to pay the $30, the other fee breakdowns are for other things, you don't need to concern yourself with).
http://www.copyright.gov/docs/fees.html

Still put the copyright symbol, your names AND the year on your cover card as Fulgour says, and in the instruction booklet too. You should do that automatically with any creation you make, it eliminates confusion as to who the creator was. The year should be the year that the deck is 'published', meaning officially available to be purchased by someone. You don't need to put all the info on every card (even though US Games sometimes does).

So you can send in, say, 22 majors and get them all copyrighted for the ONE 30 dollar fee? You dont pay 30 dollars per card? Is that right?

What if you made 22 majors...got them copyrighted, and then created the 56 minors a few years later?

Yes, it covers the 'set', not individual cards. Mostly because you wouldn't selll the cards individually to people. As for the upgrade to a full deck, I think you have to contact the representative at the site to ask about that because you're substantially changing the amount of cards in the deck. I think it MIGHT be covered because the deck would still have the same name or title it would be sold under, but check to be sure. You can actually call a copyright lawyer to ask that, for free, and get an answer but I'd contact the copyright office first since they're far more familiar with how things work in regards to the VA form.

The $30 for example would cover an art portfolio if it was meant to be sold with all the pictures as a set, would cover a sculpture/artistic creation of Noah's Ark with all the pieces because it's considered a complete set, would cover a selection of songs in a music book because all the songs are bound together as a set in the book, etc.