Guide Note: Copyright is a form of legal protection provided to the creators of “original works of authorship,” both published and unpublished. In the United States, copyright protection is governed by Title 17 of the US Code, and applies to literary works, visual art, dance, musical compositions, radio and television broadcasts, software, and certain other types of intellectual property. There are three basic requirements to obtain copyright protection. The work must be eligible for copyright protection, it must be original, and it must be "fixed". A work is considered "fixed" when it is written down, or recorded. There is no filing requirement, and since 1978 in the United States, there is no need to place a copyright notice on the work. The copyright is automatically created when an original work is generated. All works produced after 1978 are protected for the term of the author's life, plus 70 years. Copyright protection gives the author a number of exclusive rights to the work:
- To produce copies
- To sell copies
- To import or export the work
- To create derivative works, by adapting the original work
- To perform, transmit, or display the work
- To sell or assign these rights
There are a number of exceptions to the copyright law enumerated in Title 17. The one most commonly referred to is the "Fair Use Doctrine". Fair use is commonly thought of as the ability to quote short passages of a work for non-commercial use. The actual Fair Use wording in the statute is not that clear. It lists four factors that need to be considered when determining if a use qualifies as a Fair use:
- The purpose and character of the use
- The nature of the copyrighted work
- The amount and percentage of the work that was used
- The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the work
Fast Facts:
- Most works before 1923 are considered public domain
- Most countries have copyright periods lasting between 50-100 years
- First International copyright treaty was the Berne Convention in 1886
