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What is Copyright?
Copyrights are exclusive rights given to the creator of the established work to protect the unauthorized copying of their work. The rights given to the creator of the work include the right to do the following:
- Reproduce the work by making copies or phonorecords
- To create derivate works of the copyright in question
- To display their work publicly in an open forum in a fixed medium
- To distribute their work for the purposes of sale, licensing, transfer of ownership, and or rent.
- To perform their work publicly in an open forum in a fixed medium.
The copyrights protects works that are substantive and fixed in a particular medium. Usually the copyrighted materials are forms of expression of original authored works such as literary, musical, dramatic, artistic, and other published or unpublished works.
The copyrights laws are generally standardized with much of the modern world recognizing some form of copyrights. In the United States the copyright is designated with a C inside a circle. The modern copyright law originated with Statute of Anne or the Copyright act of 1709 in Britain. It was enacted to protect the original author from unauthorized reproduction of their work without the original authors consent. The protection of these rights allowed for the author encouragement to create further works.
It is therefore illegal to reproduce or violate any copyright to the detriment of the copyright holder. Legal action can be made to recoup any loss to the copyright holder and to recover any fees associated with legal representation. These laws however are not without limit. The Copyright Act does establish limitations on these rights. It is recommended that you consult the copyright law or contact an attorney for any questions regarding these limitations. Some examples of limitations are the “fair use” doctrine.
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