Copyright is a collection of rights granted to artists, authors, musicians, and other creators of original works. Copyright laws seek to ensure that creative people benefit from their own creations. The laws protect against the unauthorized copying, distribution, and public performance of creative works. Many forms of expression, including books, computer programs, designs, motion pictures, musical compositions, paintings, and poems, are protected by copyright laws. Protected works are considered intellectual property. Such property is defined as a product of human creativity over which a person or group of people have legal control.
Copyright protection is temporary in nature. In the United States, most works are protected by copyright until 70 years after the creator’s death. In other countries, the length of copyright varies. Still, it is usually for a fixed period of time after the creator’s death. A variety of factors can influence the length and conditions of a copyright. For instance, different copyright rules apply to anonymous works than to works written under a pen name. An anonymous work is one by a person whose name is not known or given. A pen name is a name an author uses instead of his or her real name. Once a copyright expires, the work enters the public domain. When a work enters the public domain, it is in the legal category of creative works that the public may use freely.
Patents and trademarks are distinct from copyrights. A patent prevents an invention from being made, used, or sold by anyone but the owner of the patent. A trademark is a word, name, or symbol designed to distinguish the products or services of one company from those of another. In some cases, a patent or trademark may overlap with the copyright of a particular work. For instance, a patent may protect the functional features of a lamp. The lamp’s design, however, may be protected by copyright. For more information, see Patent; Trademark.
The first modern copyright law was the Statute of Anne, passed by the British Parliament in 1710. It served as the model for the first United States copyright act, which was passed in 1790. Copyright rules and procedures vary from one country to another. The Register of Copyrights of the Library of Congress administers copyright law in the United States. The Patent Office works to protect intellectual property rights in the United Kingdom. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office and the Australian Copyright Council perform similar functions in Canada and Australia. In addition, numerous international agreements have established copyright guidelines across international borders.
Works protected.
Copyright laws cover numerous types of original work. Such works may be literary, musical, dramatic, pantomime, choreographic (dance), pictorial, graphic, or sculptural. Additional categories include motion pictures and other audio-visual works, sound recordings, architectural works, computer programs, designs for computer chips, and various collections of data. To be copyrighted, works must exist in a fixed form. In other words, they must be recorded on film or tape, written on paper, painted on canvas, formed in clay, saved to a computer, or recorded in some other manner.
Literary works include novels, essays, poems, diaries, computer programs, the contents of websites, and other written collections. Musical works include original compositions and arrangements, as well as any words that accompany the music. New versions of earlier musical compositions may also be copyrighted. Dramatic works mainly include plays intended for live performance, and screenplays. Choreographic works can be copyrighted if they are filmed, taped, or written down. However, social-dance steps usually cannot be copyrighted. They embody the “idea,” not “expression” of the idea and remain in the public domain.
Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works include photographs, paintings, drawings, statues, holograms (three-dimensional images recorded by means of laser light), greeting cards, cartoons, comic strips, and posters. Lithographs (prints made from prepared plates), etchings, and other art reproductions by the original artist are covered. Expression (as opposed to ideas or facts) in maps, globes, charts, jewelry, toys, and various designs and patterns are covered as well.
Motion pictures include all works consisting of a series of related images, regardless of whether the images are recorded on film, tape, or disc. Other audio-visual works include filmstrips, instructional presentations, and other sequences of images. Sounds accompanying audio-visual works may also be protected.
Architectural works include buildings and architectural plans and drawings. Copyright law may cover the overall form of an architectural work or the unique arrangement of elements and spaces in its design. It may not include elements that are only functional.
A computer program consists of a detailed set of instructions written for a computer. A computer chip is a tiny piece of material that contains a complex electronic circuit. Computer chips have masks (designs) that describe the electronic circuits. These masks can be used to make copies of chips. Computer programs and computer chip masks are covered under copyright or other intellectual property laws in most countries.
Generally, no protection is available for ideas, concepts, names, titles, short phrases, general themes, or familiar symbols. Catalogs, directories, and other collections of data may be copyrighted in certain cases. However, many copyright laws require that the collections contain original content or intellectual expression. In other words, they must result from some creativity beyond simply listing known data.
Owners’ rights.
The owner of a copyright generally has several exclusive rights associated with his or her original work. Most of these rights are economic rights that allow the creator to benefit from the sale or use of the work.
A copyright owner has the exclusive right to reproduce (make copies of) the copyrighted work and to distribute copies of the work. However, once a copy has been distributed, the copy owner has the right to resell or otherwise transfer that particular copy. A copyright also gives the owner the sole right to create derivative works. These are works based upon the copyrighted work, such as translations and motion-picture versions. Copyright owners typically have exclusive rights to post literary works on the Internet and to distribute original sound recordings over the Internet.
The owner of a copyright usually has the exclusive right to perform the work publicly if it is a literary, musical, dramatic, or choreographic work; a pantomime; or a motion picture or other audio-visual creation. The owner has the sole right to display the work publicly if it is a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work, or an individual image from a motion picture or other audio-visual work.
The creators of certain works of visual art, such as paintings, have a right of attribution. This gives an artist the right to be identified as a work’s creator. Artistic creators also have the right to protect the integrity of their work against modification or mutilation. The rights of attribution and integrity are sometimes called moral rights.
Owners of a copyright may transfer their exclusive rights to someone else through a written contract. Copyright owners may also grant licenses to other people. This gives the holder of the license permission to use the copyrighted work in certain ways. For instance, a copyright owner may grant another person a license to print a certain number of copies of a work during a specified period. In such cases, the owner transfers, within limits, the right to reproduce and distribute the work. However, rights of attribution and integrity, in some countries, are exclusive to the creator and may not be transferred.
Under U.S. copyright law, transferred rights may be terminated upon notice to the Copyright Office at the end of 35 years of the copyright term. In 2013, the first copyrights became eligible for this termination, and a number of musical artists have presented notification to terminate licenses to music. Such termination allows relatively unknown artists to renegotiate terms of a license at a time when the artists are better known and in a better bargaining position.
People who create a copyrighted work within the scope of their employment give up the copyright to their employer. In such cases, the work is considered a work made for hire. If two or more people create a work in collaboration, the copyright is usually shared. No single owner has exclusive rights over the work.
A copyright owner whose copyright is violated may file a lawsuit to stop further infringements (violations). The owner may also receive compensation (payment) for damages or profits resulting from the infringements. Violating a copyright on purpose is a criminal offense. Unintentional infringement is also illegal, but it may be treated less harshly by courts than intentional infringement.
Users’ rights.
The copyright laws of most countries include sections on fair use. In some countries, fair use is called fair dealing. Fair use describes the limited reproduction or distribution of copyrighted material that is legal for such purposes as critical commentary, news reporting, study, and research. For example, teachers can generally make a limited number of copies of a copyrighted work for classroom use. Another example of fair use is the result of a 2015 decision by a New York federal appeals court in Authors Guild v. Google. The Authors Guild, a professional organization that advocates for authors’ rights, filed a lawsuit against the Internet company Google Inc. over Google’s scanning of millions of copyrighted books. The appellate court dismissed the suit. The justices ruled unanimously that Google’s unauthorized digital copying of protected works was not copyright infringement because the “snippets” of text made available for online searches of the books through Google Books are limited and therefore, providing the text is fair use. The Guild appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of the United States. However, the high court refused to review the case, effectively ending the Guild’s 10-year legal challenge.
Users may seek permission for further reproduction or distribution of copyrighted works by contacting the owner directly. Or they may contact an organization that acts as an agent for copyright owners. Such organizations provide licensing services and oversee the collection of royalties—that is, payments for the use of copyrighted works. Major organizations of this type in the United States include the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP); Broadcast Music, Incorporated (BMI); and the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC). In Canada, a major organization is Access Copyright. The Copyright Licensing Agency provides this service in the United Kingdom. There are a number of copyright collecting agencies in Australia, including the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and the Visual Arts Copyright Collecting Agency (VISCOPY).
In some countries, certain copyrighted works may be used without permission if the user pays a set fee. In Sweden, for example, purchasers of television sets must pay a license fee to cover the programming that they will view over the set.
The unlicensed copying of sound recordings often violates copyright laws. However, in some countries, owners of digital audio recording machines are allowed to use the machines to copy recordings for home use. The law allows the owners to do so because the manufacturers of the machines and of blank discs and tapes pay royalties that are distributed to recording companies, music publishers, and songwriters. This method was primarily used for digital audio tape (DAT) players and tapes. But content owners have lobbied for new technologies to also follow this method.
During the 1990’s, many people began turning copyrighted sound and video recordings into computer files. Sometimes, they copied or shared these files over the Internet. In the following years, a series of court cases in the United States focused on the use of Internet file-sharing services, such as Napster. U.S. courts determined that such services violate copyright laws if they encourage infringement. Australian and British law has also found file-sharing a violation of copyright law. In Canada, however, courts have ruled that the use of such services is not an infringement. In the United States, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 provided safe harbor requirements to Internet service providers so that they were not subject to contributory infringement when users shared files. These same safe harbor provisions may also protect providers of cloud computing services.
How to obtain a copyright.
In many countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom, original works receive copyright protection automatically when they are created. There are no registration procedures or fees. In such countries, a poem, for instance, is protected by copyright as soon as it is written.
Some countries, however, require or encourage registration. In the United States and Canada, copyright protection is automatic. Registering a work, however, gives the creator more rights in cases of infringement in these countries. Registration in the United States is handled by the Copyright Office. In Canada, people register with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.
In many countries, authorities recommend that a notice of copyright appear on each copy of any published work. This usually consists of either the word “Copyright,” the abbreviation “Copr.,” or the symbol ©, accompanied by the name of the copyright owner or a designation by which the owner can be recognized. In most cases, the notice should also include the year in which the work was first published. For example, “© J. K. Rowling 2003.” If the work is a sound recording, the notice should contain the symbol ℗, the year of first publication of the recording, and the name of the copyright owner. For example, “℗ 2004 Columbia Records.”
A notice of copyright is usually not necessary for copyright protection. However, the notice may serve as a reminder to others that the material is protected.
International agreements.
The first major international agreement relating to copyright was the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 1886. The convention set standard rules for copyright protection and agreed to protect works published in each of the member countries. Since its creation, the Berne Convention has been revised several times, and most of the world’s developed nations have joined. The Berne Convention is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, an agency of the United Nations.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) organized the Universal Copyright Convention of 1952. The convention enabled citizens to obtain copyright protection in every country that agreed to the convention by publishing, with proper copyright notice, a work in any one of the countries. The convention’s guidelines stated that the © symbol should be used as an international notice of copyright.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and later the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), provided for various intellectual property protections among North America’s three largest countries. NAFTA, which took effect in 1994, was replaced and updated by the USMCA in 2020. The World Trade Organization (WTO), founded in 1995, requires all members to comply with most of the requirements of the Berne Convention.
The Convention on Cybercrime, which went into force in 2004, protects against copyright infringements on computer systems. Other major international agreements include the Geneva Phonograms Convention (1971), the Brussels Satellite Convention (1974), the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement (1994), and the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty (1996). In addition, today almost all bilateral or multilateral trade agreements have supplemental agreements on intellectual property obligations attached to them.
