Definition of Copyright All Rights Reserved
A copyright is a form of protection granted to authors and creators of original works, including literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, as well as computer software. An author's rights arise from the time a work is created in fixed form. However, registration with the U.S. Copyright Office offers an author additional rights, mainly the ability to sue in federal court. Therefore, there is a mistaken assumption that marking the copyrighted material with the words "All Rights Reserved" (or the "©" symbol) gives an author additional copyright protection.
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"All Rights Reserved"
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The phrase "All Rights Reserved" means that an author of an original work reserves (holds) all of the rights afforded to her under copyright law. This includes distribution and performance, as well as the creation of derivative material.
The Buenos Aires Convention
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The Buenos Aires Convention of 1910, of which the United States was a member, required the phrase "All Rights Reserved" to be placed on original copyrighted works in order for them to be afforded copyright protection.
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The Berne Convention
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By 2000, all countries that had been a member of the Buenos Aires Convention had joined the Berne Convention, which grants copyright protection without requiring a written notice of copyright. Therefore, the phrase "All Rights Reserved" became obsolete.
Uses
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Requirements that resulted from the Buenos Aires Convention applied only to countries who joined it. The convention was comprised mostly of South American countries and some North American countries. The use of "All Rights Reserved" only applied to copyrighted material created in those countries.
Today
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Some authors still use the term "All Rights Reserved" by force of habit, even though it affords them no additional copyright protection. Use of this phrase is considered an antiquated practice.
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