General

To all the people hating on the artwork that I edit and post

Educate yourself before raging and complaining about the Kanna look alike screens that I have posted. I also don't make money from these screens that I edit.

[b]What is Copyright?[/b]
Copyright is the exclusive right granted to a creator (artist, author, composer, etc) to control their original creations. Artistic works to not need to be registered or published in order to be protected. They are covered by copyright law the moment they exist in a fixed medium.
Broken down:
[b]Exclusive Rights[/b] - This refers to the copying, distributing, and adapting of the original material.

[i]Copying[/i] - Also known as plagiarism. With regards to visual art, this includes both claiming credit for work you have not done and stuff like tracing, though the latter of which can also fall into "derivative works" territory, depending on the nature of any changes that are made in the process.

[i]Distributing[/i] - This means sharing, whether for free or for profit. In such cases that the content itself is distributed by the creator for free, such as a web-comic, posting actual images from the comic wherever you want isn't a problem so long as you don't claim credit for it. Selling it, however, would be against the law. Free distribution of works that must be paid for to acquire are also against the law; for example: scanning the pages of a print comic and posting them online, or donating to the art team and then putting their wallpapers on the internet.

[i]Adapting[/i] - This is where "derivative works" and fan art really come in. To adapt an original work is to change it in some way that uses the concept of the original as the basis. Artists might adapt their own work by changing outfits, mediums, colors, or styles. Others may adapt it by making changes to traced images, editing existing work (sprites, screen caps, drawings), or making their own interpretations of the original artist's concepts; aka: [b]Fan Art[/b].

[i]Fixed Medium[/i] - Creative content can't be protected unless it is made permanent in some way; visual arts must be rendered, music must be written or recorded, literature must be transcribed. Whether or not said work sees the light of day has no bearing on whether or not it is protected, so a work need not be published or even registered with the government to be protected.

[b]ALSO, this next excerpt is taken from[/b][url=http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap13.html]Copyright.gov website[/url]

[b]1309. Infringement[/b]

(g) Reproduction for Teaching or Analysis. -- It is not an infringement of the exclusive rights of a design owner for a person to reproduce the design in a useful article or in any other form solely for the purpose of teaching, analyzing, or [b]evaluating the appearance, concepts, or techniques embodied in the design[/b], or the function of the useful article embodying the design.

[i]Continuing on, how do I know if the artist is being true to his or her words about their work being copyrighted. This next bit, also taken from the above link...[/i]

[b]1326. Penalty for false marking[/b]

(a) In General. -- Whoever, for the purpose of deceiving the public, marks upon, applies to, or uses in advertising in connection with an article made, used, distributed, or sold, a design which is not protected under this chapter, a design notice specified in section 1306, or any other words or symbols importing that the design is protected under this chapter, knowing that the design is not so protected, shall pay a civil fine of not more than $500 for each such offense.

(b) Suit by Private Persons. -- Any person may sue for the penalty established by subsection (a), in which event one-half of the penalty shall be awarded to the person suing and the remainder shall be awarded to the United States.

[b]1327. Penalty for false representation[/b]

Whoever knowingly makes a false representation materially affecting the rights obtainable under this chapter for the purpose of obtaining registration of a design under this chapter shall pay a penalty of not less than $500 and not more than $1,000, and any rights or privileges that individual may have in the design under this chapter shall be forfeited.

[i]Continuing onward if you have read this wall of text thus far,[/i]

Under copyright law, "published" means you have made copies of the work available for distribution to the public.

If a work is "published" under this standard, you are supposed to declare the date and country of such publication on your application for copyright registration, and you are supposed to submit the published version of your work as the deposit specimen for the registration.

You are correct that copyright exists, and you own it, as soon as you create your illustration. There is no way to lose your copyright just by publishing your work.

Unfortunately, there is no consensus yet on whether posting a work online qualifies as a legal "publication." The Copyright Office has refused to offer an opinion. Some people think posting online qualifies as publication because it allows multiple people in multiple locations to view the work at the same time, which is analogous to print publication. Also, in fact your computer technically makes a "copy" of the work when it displays the web page.

[b]Once a work is online, it is very easy for viewers to make printouts of the work, which is also creating a copy. However, the law is clear that unauthorized copying does not count as a legal publication. Therefore, if you post your work with a copyright notice (and, for good measure, a clear statement that it may not be copied without your permission), there's a good argument that you have not made copies of your work available to the public, and thus your posting is not a legal "publication."[/b]

[url=http://youtu.be/YkwvWrWSaKE?t=21s]Boom[/url]