Copyrights are designed to protect Intellectual property (IP). IP is a product of the human intellect. Different from physical property. If you are a carpenter and you make a chair you have lots of control over how the chair is used. Without copyright law, if you are a musician and you write a composition you don't have much control over your work. Purpose for copyright law (taken from the constitution): "to promote science and the useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors... the exclusive right to their ... writings".
Countries with strong IP laws tend to be sources of most inventions and creative work.
In some cases you are allowed limited use of copyrighted material without having a license or permission of the author. We are talking about copyrights in this class because as you create multimedia projects you should be aware:
1. How to protect your work and what protections are available to you.
2. What is legal and illegal use of IP you don't own
Intellectual property laws fall into a few categories. Copyrights is one. Others are patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. We will focus on copyrights. Copyright law protects the expression of an idea. Patents the idea. Trademarks - symbols that represent a product or service. Trade secrets - information kept secret.
Copyrights protect the original expression of an idea once it is put in a tangible form. A copyright protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. Doesn't cover facts or short phrases. Ideas can be protected with a patent, facts can't be protected. (If they could you couldn't talk about basketball scores without written permission of the NBA.) The expression of facts is covered. (A radio station on a low budget can listen to traffic reports from other stations and repeat the information.) Short phrases can be protected by trademarks.
Specifically, a copyright gives the owner of a work of expression the exclusive right to copy, distribute, display and perform the expression, and to prepare alterations (derivative works) based on it. A copyright is collection rights which can be given away, sold, leased, or licensed.
Copyright is an old concept that has adapted to new technologies. (At one time player piano rolls weren't considered a violation of the copyrights of the music owner.) Courts are showing a willingness to interpret copyright laws the same for works in cyberspace as works in the "real world".
How do you become the owner of copyrighted material? Simple, as soon as an original expression of yours is put into tangible form it is copyrighted. There is no need to register it with the government or add a © symbol. There are advantages to registering it. If you don't register three months after publication or before infringement:
It costs about $20 to register a copyright.
Copyright starts with the owner having exclusive rights to his/her work. The Copyright act then defines exceptions. The most important is the exception for "Fair Use".
The fair use provision allows limited use of copyrighted materials under certain circumstances. Fair use applies mainly when the work is used for the purpose of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research. The fair clause isn't specific and requires interpretation. The factors to be considered are:
The last item carries the most weight.
All copyrights are granted for a limited time. (You can use Windows 95 for free after 2090!) The rules are complex and you won't be expected to know the rules for this class. If you are interested click here to find out when copyrights expire.
Can you make a copy of a CD for private use? Can you give copies to immediate family member? (yes, yes)
What if I create something at work? Anything you create within the scope of your work is owned by your employer. ("work made for hire" doctrine.)
Is it OK to copy copyrighted materials from web sites outside of the United States? No. The web site might not be bounded by US law but you are if you reside in the US.