Background Copyright Law
Most people don't realize that something they have written or a song they have created is automatically protected with a copyright from the time they complete the work. Formal copyright registration is not mandatory, but it does offer added protections if your rights are ever violated by someone else profiting from your work or using it in an unauthorized manner.
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Purpose of Copyright Law
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Creative individuals are protected by the laws of the U.S. Copyright Office. Writers, composers and artists who create original works use a copyright so that others cannot profit by the reproduction or dissemination of their work without express permission. Copyright registration is a method used to establish a record of the date of production and completion of the work that is easily identifiable in a court of law.
History in Europe
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U.S. Copyright law can be traced back to Europe in the 1500s, according to John Feather in the book, "A History of British Publishing." After the printing press was invented tradesmen in Italy were given licenses by the state to sell books. These rights gave them exclusivity to print and produce books to sell to consumers. At the time, the state got a kickback from the copies sold. Several licensing models were adopted and abandoned over the next 200-plus years. In 1793 France adopted copyright legislation that closely resembles what modern society knows as copyright law. But it was the Berne Convention of 1886 that was an attempt to develop a globally united copyright treaty that changed history forever.
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History in the U.S.
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The United States Congress passed its first federal copyright law in May of 1790. U.S. district courts were tasked with recording the first ownership claims that started coming in two weeks after the law was passed. In 1870 Congress relieved courts of this duty and transferred it to the Library of Congress. The formal Copyright Office was developed as its own entity in 1897.
Copyright Claims
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The U.S. Copyright Office declares that, "Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed form." The author or authors of the work are the only ones who can claim copyright, unless it is a work made from a for-hire project. A work made for hire implies that the creators of the work were employees working directly for a corporation producing something for the use of the company, or a work that is created by a specialist who is contracted to create the work and expressly surrenders his ownership when he signs a work-for-hire agreement.
What's Protected
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As listed in the U.S. Copyright law these "original works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible form of expression" are protected by Copyright law:
1. literary works
2. musical works, including any accompanying words
3. dramatic works, including any accompanying music
4. pantomimes and choreographic works
5. pictorial, graphic and sculptural works
6. motion pictures and other audiovisual works
7. sound recordings
8. architectural works
What's Not Protected
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Works that have not been recorded or written are not protected under copyright law. Neither are titles, slogans and names. Ideas are also not copyrightable. The method or system used to complete a task cannot be copyrighted. Informational work that predominantly includes claims considered common knowledge and does not include original writing also cannot be copyright-protected.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit copyright image by cam422 from Fotolia.com
