Copyright Law

Bartenders can often come up with a new drink and claim it as their own, but copyright laws in the United States put a chill on legally recognizing that claim.

The Copyright Act of 1976 is the third and latest copyright act in the United States. Under the act, copyright holders can bring claims against those who infringe upon their rights.

Copyright infringement of software, commonly referred to as software piracy, is the act of buying, selling or trading stolen copies of programs. If you are caught, the consequences of software...

To copy right your written material is easier than you think. It can be done with a First Class stamp, envelope and add your written material. Read how.

In today's world of e-books and online reprints, authors are concerned about retaining the electronic rights to their works. To protect their rights to publish, reproduce and sell such works,...

Creating designs for T-shirts can be a lot of fun. Today's technology means your creations can go from your mind and into the hands of the public faster and easier than most of us ever thought...

A shell script is written for the shell, or command line interpreter, of an operating system. They basically allow multiple commands that would otherwise be entered manually at a command prompt to...

You cannot patent a book. A book is copyrighted the moment it is created. The owner of the copyright is the creator of the work, unless he or she transfers the copyright. It isn't necessary to...

Copyright infringement is the act of using someone else's copyright work, in whole or in part, without the copyright holder's permission. It is a serious offense, for which one could be sued for...

Copyrighting original music is very important to many artist, and musicians. This is how to copyright your original music.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1998. One of its provisions forbids the circumvention of technological anti-piracy measures built into commercial...

Digital resell rights are a type of rights granted by copyright license agreement. These rights allow the buyer to sell copies of the product to third parties, an act that would be prohibited by...

Resell rights, also known as resale rights, are a type of copyright license typically used to sell e-books on the Internet. There are five major forms of resell rights: standard resell rights,...

The term "manga" derives from Japanese and is loosely used to refer to the special style of comics produced by Japanese artists. There are no copyright laws that apply exclusively to manga comics....

As BitTorrent gains greater prominence on the Internet, questions about the laws concerning BitTorrent are surely to rise. BitTorrent is a protocol of file transfer, meaning any laws must balance...

Oral contracts do carry legal weight. Courts enforce them when they can. The problem they face is deciding which version of the verbal agreement to uphold. Copyright cases in this respect can...

Authors make clear their exclusive ownership rights in written works by writing a copyright statement. The statement announces the owner's exclusive rights to prevent unauthorized uses by others....

Copyright laws exist to protect the creative works of writers, filmmakers, sculptors, furniture designers, and any other type of artist. According to the United States Copyright Office, the 1976...

While most copyright infringements fall under the jurisdiction of civil law in the United States, in the early 1990s it became a felony to make more than 10 copies of a copyrighted item or the...

While copyright law regarding written material, films and photographs has long been established, the field of software copyright is a relatively new area. Software copyright is used by individuals...

Copyright protects intellectual property from being used without the copyright owner's permission or compensation. Violation of the copyright law is punishable by jail time and fines. Any original...

Some people think copyright laws don't hold as much weight on the Internet as they do in the traditional printed world. They're wrong. Copyright laws apply equally to publishing on the Web as they...

You have created an original work, and want to protect your creation with a copyright. Works that can be copyrighted include: books, articles, staged works, music and lyrics, films, broadcasts,...

In the United States copyrights have generally been governed by federal law. Title 17 of the U.S. Code, sometimes known as the Copyright Act of 1976 (the "Copyright Act"), is the most important...

Currently, almost every computer comes equipped with the ability to burn DVDs. This coupled with the popularity of rent-by-mail companies such as Netflix and Blockbuster has caused many to wonder...

Copyright law protects the exclusive use of an artistic or creative work by the copyright holder, who is not always the author or creator of the work. Copyright law enables others to use a portion...

Registering a copyright for a collection requires the same process as registering copyrights for individual articles, except the registrant benefits from paying only one fee for the entire...

The Software Copyright Act, also known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), went into effect in 1998. It was designed to modernize U.S. copyright law in response to new technology and...

Copyright law is still struggling to keep pace with advancements in computer technology. The ease with which copyrighted material can be copied by almost anyone has resulted in rampant piracy....

Although copyright law was originally created to protected artistic works, it has gradually been expanded to protect certain other kinds of works, including software programs. Although copyright...

Copyright is the part of the law that protects the interests of artists and other producers of intellectual property. The U.S. Copyright Office, part of the Library of Congress, maintains records...

Understanding fair use exceptions relevant to copyrighted materials used in the classroom helps avoid illegal copyright violations, and helps students develop respect for the intellectual property...

Copyright law faces major challenges keeping up with technological advancement. Although there is no separate body of copyright law created specifically to cover technological works, the...

Fact! People will steal and plagiarize your eHow article content, eventually. This article will provide the relevant information to help you file an online DMCA complaint with Google.

Copyrights are the fundamental legal device by which certain exclusive rights to original works of authorship are protected. Neighboring rights are rights granted under some legal regimes (such as...

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...

The Internet is a wide-open source of information, for everything from entertainment and communications to science and geographical space. There is a not-so-hidden line drawn in the sand between...

Copyright is a form of protection granted to authors of original works. The copyright gives the author exclusive rights over his or her work, with certain limitations.

Copyright laws on the illegal use of software are covered under Section 117 of the Copyright Act. The law is intended to protect software organizations and developers from the unauthorized use of...

Music has three copyrightable parts. The copyright for each of these parts can be obtained online or by mail.

The copyright guidelines for music are similar to those for books, paintings and other works but somewhat more complex because there are multiple parts of music that can be copyrighted.

Music is afforded the same copyright protections as books, paintings and other works, but can be more complex because there are three copyrightable parts to music.

MP3 files might live exclusively in the digital world, but the same copyright rules that apply to books, paintings and compact discs still apply.

Copyright law protects original creative works. But there are some works that have lost copyright protection and others that never had it at all. These works are said to be in the public domain.

Governments enact copyright laws to encourage creators to invest their time in creating artworks. Governments also enter into international agreements to protect their citizens' copyright in other...

U.S. copyright law defines two distinct categories of works that apply to older music: works created before Jan. 1, 1978, but not published or registered by that date, and works created and...

The U.S. Copyright Office protects people's original works. The copyright law is found in Title 17 of the U.S. Code. The law defines what kind of works can be copyrighted, as well as the rights...

A recipe is a list of ingredients with directions for preparing or arranging them to get a particular outcome. It is most often used in cooking, but can also be used in such areas as craft...

Copyright laws affecting sheet music can be confusing because it is separate from a recorded piece of music and lyrics, if there are any, that used the sheet music.

A copyright is a bundle of rights, normally possessed by the creator of an artistic work, that allow the creator the exclusive use of---and right to profit from---the work for a period of time...