Ownership of and right of control over all possible ways of reproducing a work, ie the product of an original creative act by one or more people, in a form which makes it possible to be copied. In particular, copyright protection is given to literary, dramatic, and artistic works (paintings, drawings, photographs, etc), sound recordings, films, television and sound broadcasts, and various productions of new technology. All major countries (except for China) and most minor ones have copyright laws, and international protection is given via two major conventions. The laws of each country differ, but there are important characteristics common to most. Copyright is a property owned by the creator (unless working under a contract of employment), but it is transferrable: the creator can either assign full copyright to another party or, retaining copyright, lease out (directly or through a publisher or agent) any of the separate rights (eg to translate) which make up the copyright. It extends to all works: the hurried private letter receives as much protection as the great novel. It is finite: at some time or other the work falls into public ownership and can be copied without permission: in the UK, since 1996, the period is 70 years after the creator's death (previously, 50); in the USA, since 1978, the period is 50 years for most works (previously 28, once renewable). It is divisible: copyright in a novel, for example, will include the right to publish in translation, to turn into a film, to anthologize, etc. It is independent of the work as a physical object: ownership of a manuscript or painting does not in itself constitute ownership of the copyright. The 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act introduced for the first time in the UK the concept of authors' and illustrators' moral rights. These include the right of paternity (the right of the author or creator to be identified as such) and the right of integrity (the right not to have work subjected to unjustified modification). These rights are retained by the creator and not assigned along with copyright.
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Copyright is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information.
Copyright may subsist in a wide range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms or "works".
Copyright law covers only the particular form or manner in which ideas or information have been manifested, the "form of material expression". It is not designed or intended to cover the actual idea, concepts, facts, styles, or techniques which may be embodied in or represented by the copyright work. Copyright law provides scope for satirical or interpretive works which themselves may be copyrighted.
For example, the copyright which subsists in relation to a Mickey Mouse cartoon prohibits unauthorized parties from distributing copies of the cartoon or creating derivative works which copy or mimic Disney's particular anthropomorphic mouse, but does not prohibit the creation of artistic works about anthropomorphic mice in general, so long as they are sufficiently different to not be imitative of the original. Other laws may impose legal restrictions on reproduction or use where copyright does not - such as trademarks and patents.
History
For the history of copyright law, see History of copyright law.
Europe
French copyright laws
French copyright law is based the Rights of the Author.
On 7 March 2006, however, the National Assembly passed the DADVSI Act which implemented - with some modifications - the 2001 European Union Copyright directive. The DADVSI act makes peer-to-peer sharing of copyrighted works an offense.
United Kingdom copyright methodology
British law states that an individual's work is placed under copyright law as soon as it leaves that person's mind and is placed in some physical form, be it a painting, a musical work written in manuscript or an architectural schematic. Once in physical form, as long as it is an original work (in the sense of not having been copied from an existing work, rather than in the sense of being novel or unique), copyright in that work is automatically vested in (i.e. The UK copyright distinctively emphasizes the labour and skill that has gone into the work, which is why some of its basic principle are sometimes referred to as the 'Sweat of the Brow' doctrine. This stands in contrast to the usual emphasis on creativity—most countries have adopted copyright laws that do not consider labour and skill as relevant. The author of an unpublished manuscript or little-known publication, which is remarkably similar to a popular novel, will have an uphill battle convincing a court that the popular novel infringes the copyright in their obscure work.
For example, when a web designer designs a webpage (based upon his own work) under a contract for services, the webmaster owns the copyright in at least the underlying code of that website. A common and simple practice to obtain evidence in favour of authorship is to place the copyright material in an envelope or package together with a document signed by several people stating that they have examined the work prior to it being sealed and that in their opinion it is original. There is no corporate copyright in Germany and the fundamental rights cannot be transferred except by heritage. However, exclusive licenses are almost as powerful as copyright transfer (and, according to the law, such an exclusive license is given to the employer automatically if the work contract does not make a different arrangement).
Spanish copyright law
The Spanish copyright is regulated in the Intellectual Property Law formulated in 1987 and amended in 1996. Currently, the copyright holds during the lifetime of the author plus 70 years.
The law explicitly allows the right to make private copies of copyrighted work without the author's consent for published audiovisual works if the copy is not for commercial use.
United States copyright law
The US Constitution allows Congress to grant exclusive rights to authors in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, also known as the Intellectual Property Clause, which also gives Congress the power to enact statutes: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. 17 U.S.C. § 105, withholds copyright from all publications produced by the United States Government, and its agents or employees while in their employment.
Congress first exercised this power with the enactment of the Copyright Act of 1790, and has changed and updated copyright statutes several times since. The Copyright Act of 1976, though it has been modified since its enactment, is currently the basis of copyright law in the United States.
The length of the copyright term within the United States was extended by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act which made the copyright term the life of the author plus 70 years for works created after January 1, 1978. Ashcroft (2003), in which the Supreme Court agreed that the length of the copyright term (ie, during which the copyright holder has a monopoly on its exploitation) could be extended by Congress after the original act of creation and beginning of the copyright term, as long as the extension itself was limited instead of perpetual. The duration of U.S. copyright for works created before 1978 is a complex matter; In the US, after the death of a copyright holder, heirs inherit the copyright.
Tajikistan copyright law
Australian Copyright Law
Trans-national copyright law
The Berne Convention provides for national treatment of other countries' copyright. In other words, France must treat a work that is copyrighted in the UK as if it were copyrighted in France, receiving the protection of French (not UK) copyright law.
Obtaining and enforcing copyright
Typically, a work must meet minimal standards of originality in order to qualify for copyright, and the copyright expires after a set period of time (some jurisdictions may allow this to be extended). In Australia, it has been held that a single word is insufficient to comprise a copyright work.
In the United States, copyright has relatively recently been made automatic (in the style of the Berne Convention), which has had the effect of making it appear to be more like a property right. Once an idea has been reduced to tangible form, for example by securing it in a fixed medium (such as a drawing, sheet music, photograph, a videotape or a letter), the copyright holder is entitled to enforce his or her exclusive rights. However, while a copyright need not be officially registered for the copyright owner to begin exercising his exclusive rights, registration of works (where the laws of that jurisdiction provide for registration) does have benefits; it serves as prima facie evidence of a valid copyright and enables the copyright holder to seek statutory damages and attorney's fees (whereas in the USA, for instance, registering after an infringement only enables one to receive actual damages and lost profits). The original holder of the copyright may be the employer of the actual author rather than the author himself if the work is a "work for hire". in English law the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 provides that where a work in which copyright subsists is made by an employee in the course of that employment, the copyright is automatically assigned to the employer.
Copyrights are generally enforced by the holder in a civil law court, but there are also criminal infringement statutes.
It is important to understand that absence of the copyright symbol does not mean that the work is not covered by copyright. The work once created from originality through 'mental labor' is instantaneously considered copyrighted to that person.
Copyright notices
Use of a copyright notice — consisting of the letter C inside of a circle (that is, "©"), the abbreviation "Copr.", or the word "Copyright", followed by the year of the first publication of the work and the name of the copyright holder — was part of previous United States statutory requirements. (Note that the letter C inside of parentheses ("(c)") has never been an officially recognized designator.) But since 1976, when the U.S. passed a new Copyright Act that followed the model of the Berne Convention, the use of copyright notices has become optional to claim copyright, as the Berne Convention makes copyright automatic.
The phrase All rights reserved was once a necessary formal notice that all rights granted under existing copyright law are retained by the copyright holder and that legal action may be taken against copyright infringement. While it is commonplace to see it, this notice is now superfluous, as every country that is a member of the Buenos Aires Convention is also a member of the Berne Convention, which hold a copyright to be valid in all signatory states without any formality of notice.
This phrase is sometimes still used even on some documents to which the original author does not retain all rights granted by copyright law, such as works released under a copyleft license.
The exclusive rights of the copyright holder
Several exclusive rights typically attach to the holder of a copyright:
to produce copies or reproductions of the work and to sell those copies (including, typically, electronic copies) to import or export the work to create derivative works (works that adapt the original work) to perform or display the work publicly to sell or assign these rights to othersThe phrase "exclusive right" means that only the copyright holder is free to exercise the attendant rights, and others are prohibited using the work without the consent of the copyright holder. Copyright is often called a "negative right", as it serves to prohibit people (e.g. The rights of the copyright holder also permit him/her to not use or exploit their copyright for its duration.
There is however a critique which rejects this assertion as being based on a philosophical interpretation of copyright law as an entity, and is not universally shared. There is also debate on whether copyright should be considered a property right or a moral right. Many argue that copyright does not exist merely to restrict third parties from publishing ideas and information, and that defining copyright purely as a negative right is incompatible with the public policy objective of encouraging authors to create new works and enrich the public domain.
Limits and exceptions to copyright
Idea-expression dichotomy and the merger doctrine
A copyright covers the expression of an idea, not the idea itself — this is called the idea/expression or fact/expression dichotomy. For example, if a book is written describing a new way to organize books in a library, a copyright does not prohibit a reader from freely using and describing that concept to others; Compilations of facts or data may also be copyrighted, but such a copyright is thin;
The first-sale doctrine and exhaustion of rights
Copyright law does not restrict the owner of a copy from reselling legitimately obtained copies of copyrighted works, provided that those copies were originally produced by or with the permission of the copyright holder. This may mean for example that a copy of a book that does not infringe copyright in the country where it was printed does infringe copyright in a country into which it is imported for retailing.
In addition, copyright, in most cases, does not prohibit one from acts such as modifying, defacing, or destroying his or her own legitimately obtained copy of a copyrighted work, so long as duplication is not involved. However, in countries that implement moral rights, a copyright holder can in some cases successfully prevent the mutilation or destruction of a work that is publicly visible.
Fair use and fair dealing
Copyright does not prohibit all copying or replication. In the United States, the fair use doctrine, codified by the Copyright Act of 1976 as 17 U.S.C. Section 107, permits some copying and distribution without permission of the copyright holder or payment to same. Those factors are:
the purpose and character of your use the nature of the copyrighted work what amount and proportion of the whole work was taken, and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. In Australia, the fair dealing exceptions under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) are a limited set of circumstances under which copyright material can be legally copied or adapted without the copyright holder's consent. Under current Australian law it is still a breach of copyright to copy, reproduce or adapt copyright material for personal or private use without permission from the copyright owner.Later acts amended US Copyright law so that for certain purposes making 10 copies or more is construed to be commercial, but there is no general rule permitting such copying. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibits the manufacture, importation, or distribution of devices whose intended use, or only significant commercial use, is to bypass an access or copy control put in place by a copyright owner.
It is absolutely vital to remember that copyright regimes can and do differ between countries, even countries which both adhere to the same copyright Convention.
Compulsory license
A compulsory license is an exception to copyright, pursuant to which another party can exercise one or more of the copyright's exclusive rights without having to obtain the copyright holder's permission (hence "compulsory") but will have to pay a licensing fee.
Criticism
Critics of copyright as a whole fall broadly into two camps: Those who assert that the very concept of copyright has never been of net benefit to society, and has always served simply to enrich a few at the expense of creativity; The French droit d'auteur ("Rights of the Author"), which influenced the 1886 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, must also be noted as a significant alternative to the usual Anglo-Saxon concept of copyright.
Among the latter group, there are also some who continue to agree with copyright as a way to grant authors rights, but feel that it "outlives its welcome" by granting copyright for too long (eg, far beyond the lifetime of the author), and is therefore of little direct benefit to him or her.
To many critics, the general problem is that the current (international) copyright system undermines its own goal (Boyle 1996, 142). But these are gradually being eroded, as copyright terms are repeatedly extended to last beyond the lifetime of the audience which experienced and knows of the original work.
Other copyright scholars believe that, regardless of contemporary advances in technology, copyright remains the fundamental way by which authors, sculptors, artists, musicians and others can fund the creation of new works, and that absent legal protection of their material interests, many valuable books and artworks would not be created. They remind us that the alternative to the modern, market-driven copyright system was the patronage of governments and aristocracies, with obvious great potential for the patrons to limit and censor the kinds of works being produced. The public interest is, arguably, served even by repeated extension of copyright terms to encompass multiple generations beyond the copyright holder's life, not only because many "authors" and copyright holders are corporations with the ability to make new investments in older works (for example, the restoration of old movies), but also because the right of an author's heirs to continue to profit from a copyrighted work may provide a substantial part of the incentive to create. Another effect of the repeated extension of copyright term is that current authors are shielded from competition from a wide public domain. Instead, these products use copyright to enforce their license terms, which are designed to ensure the free nature of the work, rather than securing exclusive rights for the holder for monetary gain;
Even in more traditional forms such as prose, some authors, such as Cory Doctorow, retain the copyright to their work but license it for free distribution (for example under a Creative Commons licenses). This has the benefit of providing a structured scheme under which authors can loosen some of the barriers that copyright imposes on others, allowing them to partially contribute the work to the community (in the form of giving a general grant on copying, reproduction, use or adaptation subject to certain conditions) while retaining other exclusive rights they hold in it.
But defenders of the present system of strong copyrights argue that it has been largely successful in financing the creation and distribution of a wide variety of works, especially those requiring significant labor and capital.
Copyright can also be used to stifle political criticism.
In the US in 2003, controversial changes implemented by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act extending the length of copyright under U.S. copyright law by 20 years were challenged, unsuccessfully, in the United States Supreme Court. Ashcroft, held inter alia that in placing existing and future copyrights in parity in the CTEA, Congress acted within its authority and did not transgress Constitutional limitations.
Copyright is also conceived by some to be an "artificial barrier" in that "expressions" could be freely exchanged between individuals and groups if there were no copyright or other legal restrictions preventing. Such people believe that as the state does not necessarily possess the moral authority to enact copyright laws, individuals may vary in their observation of such laws. As noted above, others disagree with that, believing that the copyright system, which arises from provisions in the U.S. Constitution, has made and continues to make a valuable even essential contribution to the creation and dissemination of works.
Copyright concepts are under challenge in the modern era, primarily from the increasing use of peer to peer filesharing. A public-accessible Wiki has been installed by Downhill Battle to build a copyright curriculum called Copyright Curriculum for teachers to download and use in their classrooms.
Other aspects
Transfer and licensing
A copyright, or aspects of it, may be assigned or transferred from one party to another. For example, a musician who records an album will often sign an agreement with a record company in which the musician agrees to transfer all copyright in the recordings to the company in exchange for royalties and other considerations. The creator (and original copyright holder) benefits, or expects to, from production and marketing capabilities far beyond those of the author. A copyright holder need not transfer all rights completely, though many publishers will insist. Some of the rights may be transferred, or else the copyright holder may grant another party a non-exclusive license to copy and/or distribute the work in a particular region or for a specified period of time. Under Australian law, it is not enough to pay for a work to be created in order to also own the copyright.
Under the U.S. Copyright Act, a transfer of ownership in copyright must be memorialized in a writing signed by the transferor. For that purpose, ownership in copyright includes exclusive licenses of rights. Transfers of copyright ownership, including exclusive licenses, may and should be recorded in the U.S. Copyright Office.
Copyright may also be licensed. Some jurisdictions may provide that certain classes of copyrighted works be made available under a prescribed statutory license (eg, musical works in the United States used for radio broadcast or performance). This is also called a compulsory license, because under this scheme, anyone who wishes to copy a covered work does not need the permission of the copyright holder, but instead merely files the proper notice and pays a set fee established by statute (or by an agency decision under statutory guidance) for every copy made. Because of the difficulty of following every individual work, copyright collectives or collecting societies and performing rights organizations (such as ASCAP, BMI, RIAA and MPAA) have been formed to collect royalties for hundreds (thousands and more) works at once.
Copyright and file sharing
Copyrighted works copied onto digital media are easily and trivially exactly copied via file sharing. However, producers of copyrighted material (ie, publishers) often attribute losses in their sales to online copying, yet they generally continue to produce material and make profits.
It can be argued that, rather than criminalize millions of file sharers around the world who now routinely use the Internet to commit acts which can be argued breach copyright in this or that jurisdiction. Private enforcement of copyright having proven essentially ineffective, copyright holders have attempted to use the legal system to apply pressure on such users to purchase rather than copy their products. In the meantime, companies or individuals held by a court to have infringed copyright may be required to pay substantial amounts in damages.
Brief comparison with similar legal rights
Copyright law covers the creative or artistic expression of an idea.
Although copyright and trademark laws are theoretically distinct, more than one type of them may cover the same item or subject matter. Titles and character names from books or movies may also be trademarked while the works from which they are drawn may qualify for copyright.
Another point of distinction is that a copyright (and a patent) is generally subject to a statutorily-determined term, whereas a trademark registration may remain in force indefinitely if the trademark is periodically used and renewal fees continue to be duly paid to the relevant jurisdiction's trade marks office or registry. Once the term of a copyright has expired, the formerly copyrighted work enters the public domain and may be freely used or exploited by anyone. Courts in the United States and the United Kingdom have rejected the doctrine of a common law copyright. Copying such works therefore, such as by posting them in a Wikipedia article, may violate the author's copyright.
How long copyright lasts
Copyright subsists for a variety of lengths in different jurisdictions, with different categories of works and the length it subsists for also depends on whether a work is published or unpublished. In most of the world the default length of copyright for many works is either life of the author plus 50 years, or plus 70 years. Copyright in general always expires at the end of the year concerned, rather than on the exact date of the death of the author. In the United States, all books and other items published before 1923 have expired copyrights and are in the public domain, and all works created by the U.S. Government, regardless of date, enter the public domain upon their creation. But if the intended exploitation of the book includes publication (or distribution of a film based on the book) outside the U.S., the terms of copyright around the world must be considered. Some works are covered by copyright in Spain for 80 years after the author's death.
Moral rights
Many countries recognize certain moral rights of the author of a copyrighted work. Two key moral rights are the right not to have the work altered or destroyed without consent, and the right to be attributed as the author of the work. The first major copyright case in the United States, Wheaton v. Peters, established that copyright was not a natural right nor a common law right.
In most of Europe it is not possible for authors to assign their moral rights (unlike the copyright itself, which is regarded as an item of property which can be sold, licensed, lent, mortgaged or given like any other property). These rights are granted in respect of a non Anglo-Saxon tradition -- the droits d'auteur concept rather than copyright. Droits d'auteur, and most legislation implementing it, also grants all creators various moral rights beyond the economic rights recognized in most copyright jurisdictions (see also parallel import).
Typefaces
In the United States, typeface designs are not covered by copyright, but may be covered by design patents if sufficiently novel.
The United Kingdom (in 1989) have passed a law making typeface designs copyrightable. The British law is retroactive, so designs produced before 1989 are also copyrighted if the copyrights would not have already expired. Specific legislation permits the reproduction of copyright works in Braille, audio.
Unusual copyright grants
On rare occasions, rights can be granted outside of usual legislation. When the current UK copyright legislation was debated in Parliament, former Prime Minister Lord Callaghan of Cardiff successfully proposed an amendment entitling the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children to indefinitely retain the rights to payments of royalties for performances of Peter Pan.
Registering copyright
Registering copyright in the United States
While copyright in the United States automatically attaches upon the creation of an original work of authorship, registration with the Copyright Office puts a copyright holder in a better position if litigation arises over the copyright. A copyright holder desiring to register his or her copyright should do the following:
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