Copyright

• Copyright

  The legal right of the owner of intellectual property. In simpler terms, copyright is the right to copy.
• Copyright law gives creators of original material the exclusive right to further use and duplicate that material for a given amount of time. Once a copyright expires, the copyrighted item becomes public domain.
• Original Work of Authorship (OWA)


  • A work is considered original if the author created it from independent thinking void of duplication.
• Anyone with an original work of authorship automatically has the copyright to that work, preventing anyone else from using or replicating it.
• The copyright to your original work belongs to you even if you don't register it with the government. However, you will need a registered copyright if you are bringing legal action for infringement.
• Not all types of work can be copyrighted. A copyright does not protect ideas, discoveries, concepts, or theories. Brand names, logos, slogans, domain names, and titles also cannot be protected under copyright law.
• For an original work to be copyrighted, it has to be in tangible form.
• Copyright protection period in the U.S.

  Original owners are protected by copyright laws all of their lives until 70 years after their death. If the original author of the copyrighted material is a corporation, the copyright protection period is 95 years from the date of publication or 120 years, whichever expires first.
• Copyright protection varies from country to country, and can stand for 50 to 100 years after the individual's death, depending on the country.
• Patent

  Covers inventions for a limited period of time, such as industrial processes, machines, and chemical compositions.
• Copyright exists as a right from the moment of creation. You do not need to register your original work, such as content on your website, in order for it to be your intellectual property. However, registering a copyright provides more legal protection.
• Cost of registering a copyright in the U.S.

  Ranges from $45 to $500 depending on what you are copyrighting and whether you are filing online or by paper.
• Copyrighting


  When someone creates a product that is viewed as original and that required significant mental activity to create, this product becomes an intellectual property that must be protected from unauthorized duplication. 
• A copyright does not protect ideas, discoveries, concepts, or theories. Brand names, logos, slogans, domain names, and titles also cannot be protected under copyright law. For an original work to be copyrighted, it has to be in tangible form. U.S. Copyright Office. "What Does Copyright Protect?" This means that any speech, discoveries, musical scores, or ideas have to be written down in physical form in order to be protected by copyright.
• U.S. copyright law has experienced a number of amendments and changes that have altered the duration of copyright protection. The "life of the author plus 70 years" protection can be attributed to the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, (also known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act or Sonny Bono Act), which generally increased copyright protections by 20 years.
• Copyright law relates to the right to copy, the copy right as it relates to copies of copyrightable works
• The US Constitution includes the intellectual property clause which gives Congress the power to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing exclusive rights to authors and inventors
• Originality (in copyright)

  The work owes its origin to the author and is independently created, not copied from other works
• For a work to be copyrightable, only a minimal amount of creativity is required
• Words, short phrases, titles, slogans, fonts, coloring, listings of ingredients/contents, familiar symbols/designs are not protectable under copyright law
• Copyright law protects original works of authorship that fall into 8 categories: literary works, musical works, sound recordings, dramatic works, pantomimes/choreographic works, pictorial/graphic/sculptural works, motion pictures, architectural works
• Copyright protection extends to the intangible material (the work) not the physical copy
• Copyright does not protect ideas, only the expression of ideas
• Facts are not copyrightable, only the narrative expression around the facts
• Works created by the US federal government cannot be copyrighted
• Work made for hire

  A work created by an employee within the scope of employment, or a work specially ordered/commissioned
• Copyright owners have exclusive rights including reproduction, adaptation, distribution, public performance, public display, and digital audio transmission
• Copyright terms last for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years, or 95 years from publication/120 years from creation for works made for hire
• Statutory damages

  Maximum amount of damages a court can award per instance of copyright infringement
• The story makes assumptions about the absence of the mitigating effects of copyright exceptions and limitations
• Much of our normal everyday behavior puts us at risk of infringing copyright, especially when so much of our life is digital
• When the law is so broad that pretty much everyone is a copyright infringer, people stop paying attention to those laws
• When the laws fail to keep up with technology, it loses legitimacy, and we become a nation of scofflaws
• Copyright exceptions and limitations

  • Reproduction of copyrighted works for blind and disabled persons
  • Libraries and archives preserving, copying, and distributing protected works
  • First sale rule under Section 109
  • Compulsory or statutory licenses for certain uses
• Fair use

  A copyright exception that allows for certain socially beneficial uses that you might otherwise get in trouble for
• Fair use is an affirmative defense, which means the defendant must show and prove that the use was fair and not an infringement
• Factors courts use to determine fair use

  • Purpose and character of the use
  • Nature of the copyrighted work
  • Amount and substantiality of the portion used
  • Effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work
• Courts can use any other factors they deem relevant, including broad considerations of whether the use will advance the public interest and the goals of the Copyright Act
• Fair use is designed to be a flexible tool, and any rule that's flexible is necessarily unpredictable
• A string of court decisions have expanded the meaning of what is considered to be a transformative fair use