Copyright

Like a patent, the copyright is an important right reaching all the way back to the U.S. Constitution, and can be found in Article I, Section 8. The central idea of a copyright is that it is an original work of authority fixed in a tangible medium of expression, either published or unpublished.

There are a number of laws that pertain to copyrights, including the 1976 Copyright Act, which can be found at http://copyright.gov/title17/. The Act itself pertains to the form of expression of the work protected under the copyright law which is classified as follows: literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic work.

If you have a copyright, what you have is best understood as a bundle of rights and not just a single right. The copyright holder’s rights including: 1) reproducing the copyrighted work, 2) proposing derivative works of the copyrighted work, 3) distributing copies of the copyrighted work, 4) publishing the copyrighted work, and 5) publicly displaying the copyrighted work.

The United States has cooperated with other countries, including through the Berne Convention and more recently through the WIPO Copyright Treaty, to come up with uniform laws, including on subjects like whether the author of the original work should be granted copyright protection even if the author failed to formally register the author’s copyrighted work. Although actual copyright registration is not required pursuant to the countries, including the United States, who are signatories to the Berne Convention, failure to register in a timely manner can affect the remedy for the person whose copyright was infringed.

Copyright Law does not protect the following: facts, ideas, systems, or methods with limited exceptions. Copyright does not apply if the work is in the public domain. Even when a copyright does apply, others may use the copyrighted work as long as the use meets the definition of fair use. Fair use is one of those issues on which parties and lawyers disagree. The length of copyright protection differs depending on when and where the work was created and published. A good rule of thumb is the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years for works published in the United States since 1978. Another challenge that impacts copyrights is the status of the person who created it. Employers may be treated differently, for example, from independent contractors.