Facts About Copyright Laws
Copyright law in the digital age is continually evolving to protect the exclusive rights of copyholders of digital media and art forms that can be transferred through digital means. However, the heart of existing copyright law, which is found in the Copyright Act of 1976 (Title 17, U.S.C.), continues to be applied to all aspects of copyrighted material. There are numerous provisions in Title 17; however, some of the more important laws set the subject matter and duration of a copyright, establish an author's exclusive rights, provide fair use exceptions and set forth punitive measures for copyright infringers.
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Subject Matter of Copyright
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Copyright law pertains to creative endeavors that are authored by one person or a collaboration of authors. When reading copyright law, there is a clear distinction made between laws that protect copyrightable material and laws that protect trademarks, which are used in the course of doing business, and patents, which protect new inventions and improvements to existing inventions. What may receive copyright protection? According to statute, "literary works; musical works (including lyrics); dramatic works (including music); pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; sound recordings; and architectural works."
Copyright Duration
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All works created after January 1, 1978 (the effective date of the Copyright Act of 1976) enjoy the same length of protection. Currently, copyright law protects works of authorship from the time they are created in a fixed form for the life of the author, plus another 70 years. If a work is created jointly, the term expires 70 years after the last living author. Unpublished anonymous and pseudonymous works and "works for hire" (corporate authorship) enjoy copyright protection for 120 years after the date they are created in a fixed form or 95 years since publication, whichever is shorter. After copyright protection lapses, the work falls into the public domain--this is to say that the general public "owns" the work collectively. However, copyrights created before January 1, 1978 had a different length of protection, depending on which copyright law was in effect at the time (see Resources below).
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Author's Exclusive Rights
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One of the most important aspects of copyright law is that it gives authors "exclusive rights" to their works. They can copy it (books, CDs, DVDs) and sell it to the public, as well as transfer ownership of their copyright (for instance, bequeathing their copyright to an heir) or rent or lease rights to their work. Authors have the exclusive right to create derivative work based on their original material. For example, only author Stephenie Meyer can write a sequel based on her successful book, "Twilight." Authors are given exclusive right to perform a work in public, be it a literary, musical, dramatic or choreographed work or an audiovisual work, such as a movie. Only an author can display copyrighted work publicly, such as a sculpture or other piece of art. In the case of a sound recording, the author has the exclusive right to perform the work publicly through digital audio transmission.
Infringement & Fair Use
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Anyone who violates the exclusive rights given to copyholders "infringes" on them. Copyright law contains no specific instances of what constitutes infringement; obviously, if an individual commandeers one of the exclusive rights granted to authors, this could be infringement. However, copyright law permits "fair use," a limitation to an author's exclusive rights (and a defense to infringement) that allows someone other than the copyholder to use the work without permission. Typically, this use is noncommercial and is for scholarly, research or educational purposes, or a use that serves the public good, such as criticism or critique (parodying an author's material is acceptable fair use, for example).
Fair use is arbitrary, decided on a case-by-case basis, with legal conclusions drawn from common law rather from statute. However, copyright law establishes four factors that courts are required to consider when determining if fair use applies in an infringement case: the purpose and character of the use; the nature of the copyrighted work (fiction or factual); the amount of the material used compared to the overall body of work, as well as its substantive value; and if the use affected the market value of the author's work.
Remedies for Infringement
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When reading through Title 17, one might get the impression that copyright statutes are passive law, affording authors specific rights and their works certain protections, and granting the public fair use of portions of an author's work. However, the bite of copyright law can be seen in the remedies it provides against infringement. When an infringement case is filed in federal court, the court has the authority to issue an injunction ordering an alleged infringer to cease the infringing activity (making bootlegged copies of a CD or illegally making available copyrighted music files on peer-to-peer network, for example). By law, a court can also seize and destroy infringing copies (the bootlegs).
Copyright law provides monetary awards for an author who successfully sues an infringer. Authors are given the option of claiming actual damages, if they can prove that infringement negatively affected their gross earnings; or they can claim statutory damages set by law. An act of infringement against any one piece of work can result in an infringer having to pay the author no less than $750 and no more than $30,000, and if the infringement was willful, statutory damages are even more. Additionally, authors may also collect court costs and attorney's fees.
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