Copyright

What's the deal with the © ?

► What is copyright?

Why should you care about copyright?

What does copyright protect and what does it NOT protect?

What are works in the "public domain?"

What is "fair use?"

How can you avoid copyright infringement?

Is it copyright infringement?
(interactive game)

What is copyright?

Someone owns just about everything.   Think about all of the things you own - clothes, pens, stereos, computers, etc.   Ownership also applies to such things as images and photos, videos, songs, and words. 

Copyright refers to the rights of a "creator" (author, publisher, artist, composer, etc.) to control the reproduction and use of his/her work (book, play, painting, sculpture, song, etc.) by others.  Copyright ensures that the creators of works are fairly compensated for their efforts.  Without copyright, what incentive would there be for people to write books, record music, create artwork, etc.?  For example, would you want to spend hours, days, weeks, even years creating something only to have everyone in the world be able to copy it, distribute it, and/or alter it as they want without your permission or compensating you for your efforts?  Of course not! 

Title 17 of the US Code (http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17) covers copyright - which means copyright is federal law.  Copyright law is quite involved and complicated, but in a nutshell, it restricts what you may do with a copyrighted work, but it also allows for certain kinds of acceptable use, called "fair use."

When dealing with this issue, it is important to remember that there is no official register for copyright.  Unlike patents and trademarks, it is an unregistered right.  To have copyright, a creator DOES NOT need to fill out an application or form or pay any kind of fee.  Copyright goes into effect immediately upon the work being fixed in a tangible medium, such as on paper, compact disk, canvas, VCR tape, DVD, the Web, etc.