Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the creators of "original works" including literary works, movies, musical works, sound recordings, paintings, photographs, software, live performances, and television or sound broadcasts. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. The Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to:

• Reproduce the work;

• Prepare other works based upon the work ("derivative works");

• Distribute copies of the work by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by lease;

• Perform the work publicly; and

• Display the copyrighted work publicly.

The copyright owner also can authorize others to do all of the above.

A work created in fixed form is automatically protected by copyright. The author immediately owns the copyright in the work and only he or she enjoys certain rights, including the right to reproduce or redistribute the work, or to transfer or license such rights to others.

In the case of works made for hire, the employer and not the employee is considered to be the author. Section 101 of the copyright law defines a "work made for hire" as a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment. In the case where an independent contractor signs a written agreement stating that the work shall be "made for hire," the employer or hiring person or firm will own a work made for hire if the work is one of the following:

1. part of a larger literary work, such as an article in a magazine or a poem or story in an anthology
2. part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, such as a screenplay
3. a translation
4. a supplementary work such as an afterword, an introduction, chart, editorial note, bibliography, appendix, or index
5. a compilation
6. an instructional text
7. a test, or answer material for a test, or
8. an atlas.

For collective works, or works that are comprised of several independent works, such as a magazine or encyclopedia, the authors of each independent work hold a copyright for each contribution. There can also exist distinct copyright protection for the collective work as a whole since creativity is involved in selecting the individual works and compiling them.

It is also important to note that mere ownership of a book, manuscript, painting, or any other copy does not give the possessor the copyright to the work.

Also, minors may claim copyright, but state laws may regulate the business dealings involving copyrights owned by minors. For information on relevant state laws, you should consult an attorney for assistance.

Certificate of Registration - An official paper denoting that a particular copyright has been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Provided the claim is registered within 5 years of the date on which the work is first published, the facts on a certificate of registration and the validity of the copyright are accepted by courts of law as self-evident unless later shown to be false.

Copy - The material object, other than a phonorecord, in which the copyrighted work is first fixed, and from which the work can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.

Copyright - A form of protection provided by the laws of the United States for "original works of authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, and audiovisual creations. "Copyright" literally means the right to copy, but has come to mean that body of exclusive rights granted by law to copyright owners for protection of their work. Copyright protection does not extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, title, principle, or discovery. Similarly, names, titles, short phrases, slogans, familiar symbols, mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, coloring, and listings of contents or ingredients are not subject to copyright.

Copyright Notice - The copyright notice consists of three elements. They are the "c" in a circle (©), the year of first publication, and the name of the owner of copyright. A copyright notice is no longer legally required to secure copyright on works first published on or after March 1, 1989, but it does provide legal benefits.

Deposit - The copy, copies, or phonorecords of an original work of authorship that are placed in the U.S. Copyright Office to support the claim to copyright in the work or to meet the mandatory deposit requirement of the 1976 Copyright Act. Deposits become part of the public record and may be selected by the Library of Congress for its collections.

Document - A paper relating to the ownership of a copyright or to any other matter involving a copyright. Documents may be recorded in the U.S. Copyright Office for the public record.

Phonorecord - A material object in which sounds are fixed and from which the sounds can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. A phonorecord may include a cassette tape, an LP vinyl disk, a compact disk, or other means of fixing sounds. A phonorecord does not include those sounds accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work.

Publish - To publish a work is to distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending. Publication also includes offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display. A public performance or display of a work does not of itself constitute publication.

Recordation - The official filing in the U.S. Copyright Office of a document having to do with copyright, such as a transfer of ownership or a grant of a security interest. The purpose of recordation is to make a public record of the facts in the document. The document must bear the actual signature of the person who executed it, or it must be accompanied by a sworn or official certification that it is a true copy of the original signed document.

Sound Recording - A sound recording is a work that results from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken, or other sounds, regardless of the nature of the material objects in which they are embodied. A sound recording does not include the sounds accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work. Copyright in a sound recording protects the particular series of sounds embodied in the sound recording. Copyright registration for a sound recording alone is not the same as registration for the musical, dramatic, or literary work recorded. The underlying work may be registered in its own right apart from any recording of the performance.

What type of creative work does copyright protect?

Copyright protects works such as poetry, movies, CD-ROMs, video games, videos, plays, DVDs, paintings, sheet music, recorded music performances, novels, software code, sculptures, photographs, choreography, and architectural designs.

To qualify for copyright protection, a work must be "fixed in a tangible medium of expression." This means that the work must exist in some physical form for at least some period of time, no matter how brief. Virtually any form of expression will qualify as a tangible medium, including a computer's random access memory (RAM), the recording media that capture all radio and television broadcasts, and the scribbled notes on the back of an envelope that contain the basis for an impromptu speech.

In addition, the work must be original -- that is, independently created by the author. It doesn't matter if an author's creation is similar to existing works, or even if it is arguably lacking in quality, ingenuity, or aesthetic merit. So long as the author toils without copying from someone else, the results are protected by copyright.

Finally, to receive copyright protection, a work must be the result of at least some creative effort on the part of its author. There is no hard and fast rule as to how much creativity is enough. As one example, a work must be more creative than a telephone book's white pages, which involve a straightforward alphabetical listing of telephone numbers rather than a creative selection of listings.

Does copyright protect an author's creative ideas?

No. Copyright shelters only fixed, original, and creative expression, not the ideas or facts upon which the expression is based. For example, copyright may protect a particular song, novel, or computer game about a romance in space, but it cannot protect the underlying idea of having a love affair among the stars. Allowing authors to monopolize their ideas would thwart the underlying purpose of copyright law, which is to encourage people to create new work.

For similar reasons, copyright does not protect facts -- whether scientific, historical, biographical, or news of the day. Any facts that an author discovers in the course of research are in the public domain, free to all. For instance, anyone is free to use information included in a book about how the brain works, an article about the life and times of Neanderthals, or a TV documentary about the childhood of President Clinton -- provided that that they express the information in their own words.

Facts are not protected even if the author spends considerable time and effort discovering things that were previously unknown. For example, the author of the book on Neanderthals takes ten years to gather all the necessary materials and information for her work. At great expense, she travels to hundreds of museums and excavations around the world. But after the book is published, any reader is free to use the results of this ten-year research project to write his or her own book on Neanderthals -- without paying the original author.

How long does a copyright last?

For works published after 1977, the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years.

However, if the work is a "work for hire" (that is, the work is done in the course of employment or has been specifically commissioned) or is published anonymously or under a pseudonym, the copyright lasts between 95 and 120 years, depending on the date the work is published.

All works published in the United States before 1923 are in the public domain.

Works published after 1922 but before 1978 are protected for 95 years from the date of publication. But if the work was created, but not published, before 1978, the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years.

If the author died over 70 years ago and the work was never published, copyright terminated on December 31, 2002. If the author died over 70 years ago, and a previously unpublished work was published before December 31, 2002, the copyright will last until December 31, 2047.