Copyright Legislation Facts
A copyright allows the author of an original work to obtain exclusive rights over the publication, distribution and adaptation of that work for a period of time that often exceeds the author's lifetime. Copyright laws are usually passed by national governments, and as such they differ from one country to the next. Nevertheless, international copyright conventions have helped to standardize copyright law worldwide.
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Protection
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Copyright laws protect literary, musical and other artistic works, and have recently been used to protect computer programs in some countries, including the United States. It is important to remember that copyright law does not protect ideas themselves, but only original expressions of ideas. A copyrightable expression of an idea must be fixed in a tangible medium to be protected--for example, a song cannot be copyrighted unless it is recorded, and a story cannot be copyrighted until it is reduced to a manuscript.
Duration
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The duration of a copyright depends on the country in which the work was created, the type of work and who owns the copyright. It is considered standard, for example, for a copyright to attach to a work of literature for several decades after the death of the author (the copyright will revert to the author's heirs when the author dies). In some cases, a copyright will endure for a certain number of decades after the creation of the work, and in other cases, copyright duration is measured from the date that the work is first published. After the copyright expires, the work enters the "public domain," and the proprietary rights of the copyright holder expire.
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Attachment of Copyright
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In most cases, the creator of an original work obtains automatic copyright protection as soon as the work is recorded in some tangible medium (a manuscript, a film or even a tape recorder). However, automatic copyright protection can be difficult to prove unless the copyright has been formally registered. Note that copyrights do not always attach to the actual creator of the copyrighted work--the creator is permitted to agree with another party to create a "work for hire," in which case the copyright attaches to the other party, not the creator.
Exceptions
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Standard copyright law contains two major exceptions that apply to copyrighted work. The first is called "fair use," which allows another party to use a small portion of a copyrighted work as long he gives proper attribution to the copyright holder. In addition, the "first sale" doctrine permits someone in legal possession of a copyrighted work to sell it to another person without the permission of the copyright holder, as in a shop that sells second-hand books or CDs.
The Berne Convention
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The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is an international. multilateral treaty that allows the holder of a copyright in one Berne Convention country to automatically obtain simultaneous recognition in all Berne Convention countries without the need to register it. The Berne Convention includes most of the countries in the world.
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