The issue of copyright was recently raised. Here is a very brief explanation. I suggest you look at the relevant chapters in a current edition of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, or read guides such as The Writer’s Rights by Michael Legat or An Author’s Handbook by David Bolt.
In the UK, if you write something original, it is your intellectual property. You own the copyright to that material. It does not need to be published for the assertion of copyright. Copyright means that no one is allowed to copy that material without your permission – which you give, for example, when you sell a manuscript to a publisher. You can give away or assign the copyright to someone else, should you wish (this may happen with some short story or poetry competitions, I believe). Copyright extends beyond the death of the artist (writer) by 70 years. Often, authors emphasise their ownership by adding © or (c) "your name" to a manuscript, but I don’t believe this is essential.
Remember: you can not copyright ideas. Any author has the right to produce work with similar themes or using the same facts. And of course, if you wish to include a quote (eg, song lyrics) in a story, you must gain permission from the copyright owner.
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