Understanding Copyright
What is a copyright?
A copyright is quite simply the definitive legal form of protection for your intellectual property rights in any work of authorship. The following is an excerpt from the Library of Congress copyright website:
“Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following:It is illegal for anyone to violate any of the rights provided by the copyright law to the owner of copyright. These rights, however, are not unlimited in scope. Sections 107 through 121 of the 1976 Copyright Act establish limitations on these rights.”
- To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;
- To prepare derivative works based upon the work;
- To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
- To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
- To display the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and
- In the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.
It is important to note that formal US copyright registration is not required for copyright protection. Copyright protection begins the moment the author fixes the work in a tangible medium of expression. The above rights exist for owners whether they have filed a formal registration or not. All one has to do is prove what they wrote and when they wrote it.
To better understand copyright, you might want to read our posts on the subject of copyright:
How To Copyrght
When To Copyright
Myths Surrounding Copyrights
How IP.com Supports Copyrights
Or, better still, go to The Patry Copyright Blog for the latest, in depth, coverage of copyright law and policy. William Patry is the Senior Copyright Counsel, Google Inc. Formerly copyright counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, formerly Policy Planning Advisor to the Register of Copyrights, formerly Law Professor, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; author of numerous treatises and articles (including one on fair use with Judge Richard Posner), and the new 7 volume treatise on "Patry on Copyright" -- kept current by the Patry Treatise Blog, which supplements Bill Patry's magnum opus on copyright.
