What Is a Copyright Statement?
Everyone's seen the little "c" in the circle, and read the text that goes with it. "This work is the sole property...." It's the copyright symbol, and it's been in the news in recent years especially in stories about media piracy and the like. But what exactly does that mean, and how does someone obtain a copyright?
Other People Are Reading
-
Original Works
-
Anything that is considered to be an original work--not necessarily unique, just original--is held to be the property of its creator. This means she holds the rights to it, and that is the beginning of copyright.
Right of Copying
-
What that copyright means is that no one else can reproduce that original work--or copy it--without the permission of the creator. If he does so, he can be sued in court, and the money he makes from the copy given to the original creator.
-
Civil Protection
-
Generally copyright violations are determined in a civil court, not a criminal one. There have been exceptions to this in recent years with the proliferation of media piracy of movies, music and software, but most smaller cases do not end in jail time.
Company Ownership
-
Just who owns the copyright can vary. If someone creates something for a parent company, then the company owns the end result. A piece of software created by Microsoft, for example, is owned by the company and not the individuals who designed it.
Official Copyright
-
Most courts will uphold some measure of even an informal copyright, such as that held on a person's blog for example. Full protection, however, requires a formal filing with the government copyright office, and this is usually expensive.
Fair Use
-
Exception is provided to the fair use of copyrighted materials. This is why you can show a movie in your own home with your friends and relatives, but can't charge them for it or make money off of it.
Expiration
-
Most copyright protection expires after 50 years of the initial filing. Ironically, frequent enough violation can lead to loss of protection, as was the case with the once brand-name and protected label "aspirin."
-
Resources
- Photo Credit http://www.seoco.co.uk/blog/
