Copyright law protects the rights of writers and creators of creative work. Learn what can and cannot be copyrighted and exceptions to the law.
Find out more about Copyrights
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by Brette Sember, J.D.
Brette is a former attorney and has been a writer and editor for more than 25 years. She is the author of more than 4...
Updated on: July 30, 2024 · 3 min read
Copyright is a form of legal protection offered to the authors of certain kinds of intellectual property. People commonly think of literary works as having copyright protection, but so do creations such as movies, plays, and music. Copyright protects a person or company's exclusive ownership of a work, meaning no one else can copy, distribute, make derivative works from, display, or publicly perform what the copyright owner has created for as long as the copyright is in effect.
Copyright laws apply to any work of authorship that is "fixed," which generally means it is somehow recorded, written, or filmed so there is a permanence to it. You may own the copyright to any kind of original expression that you've created that falls within the following areas:
Works that are not protected by copyright include:
Copyright protections exist through U.S. law, specifically the Copyright Act of 1976, which gives authors ownership of the work they create. Copyright ownership automatically begins at the very moment a work is created and generally provides protection until expiration 70 years after the death of its author.
You do not need to publish your work and you do not need to actually register the copyright to hold ownership. However, registering is necessary to enforce your rights through litigation if someone infringes on your copyright.
The use of copyrighted work without permission is called infringement. However, there are situations when use without permission may be allowed. Fair use, a legal doctrine that allows for unlicensed use, provides a framework of four factors that have to be weighed when the question is considered by a court:
Courts look at all of these factors together when deciding if something is fair use. Some common examples of fair use include:
Note that while the United States has a fair use exception, other countries use a similar concept called fair dealing.
An orphan work is one whose owner cannot be determined or located. For example, if someone wrote a poem on a subway wall but didn't sign it, there is no way to know who owns it to get permission to use it. If a company decided to use the poem in an ad campaign, the author could then sue the business for copyright infringement, even though there was no way to identify and find the author.
Orphan works are protected by the Copyright Act of 1976, but the U.S. Copyright Office released a report in 2015, stating that new laws are needed about this matter, primarily to reduce the liability of people using orphan works if the owners come forward.
Copyright provides important protection of ownership rights of creative works. Understanding the works copyright applies to and the limitations of copyright can help you understand your rights and how to protect ownership of your work.
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