Components of Copyright Law
Copyright law applies to anyone who creates a work of authorship and anyone who wishes to use such a work. It is important to understand its various components in order to protect your work and to avoid being sued for copyright infringement. These components include the creation of copyrights, the type of works protected, the scope of protection, legal loopholes, and expiration dates.
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Attachment of Copyright
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Under current U.S. law, a copyright attaches as soon as an original work of authorship is reduced to a tangible medium such as a manuscript or sound recording. The work does not have to be published or registered in order to qualify for protection, and no copyright notice is required. Nevertheless, registration and notification are good ideas in order to deter copycats and present convincing evidence in case of an infringement lawsuit.
Works Protected
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Any work normally thought of as an artistic creation is entitled to copyright protection including music, literature and paintings. Photographs and computer programs are also entitled to protection.
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Exclusive Rights
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Copyrights grant the copyright holder (whether or not the actual author) the exclusive right to produce, distribute, perform, adapt and publicly display the protected work, subject to certain exceptions, until the copyright expires.
Exceptions
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Several major exceptions exist in copyright law. One party may hire another party to produce a copyrightable work, in which case the hiring party obtains the original copyright and is treated as the original author for legal purposes. The "first sale" rule allows people to freely sell second-hand copies of copyrighted works. (This exception includes free Internet music downloads in some countries such as Canada, but not the United States.) The "fair use" rule allows anyone to use a small portion of a copyrighted work as long as the copyright holder is given proper attribution. Finally, a copyright holder may sell or license her copyright to someone else.
Expiration
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Once a copyright expires, the work is said to enter the public domain and may be freely used by anyone (Shakespeare's "Hamlet," for example). The expiration date of a given copyright depends on who holds it, when the copyright was created (because of intervening changes in copyright law), and, for some older works, whether published copies included a copyright notice. Generally speaking, under current U.S. law, copyrights granted to individuals endure for 70 years past the death of the author, while copyrights originally granted to corporations under the "work made for hire" rule endure for 120 years after creation of the work. (Note that copyrights originally granted to individual authors and later sold to corporations are subject to the 70-year rule, measured by the life of the original author.)
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