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COPYRIGHT BASICS

What Is Copyright?

• "the legal right, which the creator of an original work has, to only allow copying of the work with permission and sometimes on payment of royalties or a copyright fee" -- Dictionary of Information and Library Management, 2006.

What Can Be Copyrighted?

 

Three fundamental requirements:

Fixation: must be fixed on a tangible medium, like a piece of paper or video recording. An idea alone cannot be copyrighted.

Originality: not necessary for a work to be completely original. Works may be combined, adapted, or transformed in new ways that make them eligible for copyright protection.

Minimal creativity: must include something that is above and beyond the original. Creativity need only be extremely slight for the work to be eligible for protection.

What Cannot Be Copyrighted?

• Works in the public domain -- ideas and facts are in the public domain
• Words, names, slogans or other short phrases; names and slogans can be protected by trademark law, which offers stronger protection
• Blank forms
• Government publications, including judicial opinions; public ordinances; administrative rulings; data and statistics
• Works created by federal government employees as part of their official responsibilities
• Works for which copyright wasn't obtained or copyright has expired. In the U.S., books published before 1923 are in the public domain.

Four Basic Protections

1. The right to make copies of the work
2. The right to sell or otherwise distribute copies of the work
3. The right to prepare new works based on the protected work
4. The right to perform the protected work (such as a stage play or painting) in public