Copyright laws are the intellectual property laws formulated for protecting original work, which is fixed in the tangible form, doesn't matter published or unpublished. Copyright law grants exclusive privilege to the creator for producing, publishing, and selling their artistic products. Copyright rules exist to protect the original work of the creator of:
- Literary work
- Dramatic work
- Musical work
- Pictorial, sculpture, and graphical work
- Choreographic work
- Sound recordings and other audio-visual work
What is copyright?
Copyright is the persons' right to produce, publish and sell his own work of authorship. It only covers the form of material expression, which doesn't include ideas, concepts, and techniques. In short, the work must have a tangible form to get the benefit of copyright protection.
Copyright owners’ rights
The main aim of copyright law is to protect and save the creator's efforts, time, and creativity. The law gives exclusive rights to the copyright owner like:
- To reproduce his work.
- Allowing him to prepare derivative work on the original work
- Allowing selling, distribution, and leasing of his copies
- Perform and display his work publicly
A copyright owner may also allow other people to do any of the things mentioned above. He can transfer his/her rights to others as well. Such transfers are done through a contract. It’s not mandatory to record the transfer with the copyright office but keeping the legal recording is a good idea in the first place.
One should note that if an artist creates a work for the company he works for or during his employment, he is not considered the copyright owner as it is known as 'work made for hire.
Limitations of the copyright laws
Copyright laws only protect the tangible work; the law doesn't cover the ideas, facts, concepts, and techniques used in the copyright work. You should know that the things that are not covered under copyright law may be protected under other intellectual property rights. For example, ideas, concepts, procedures, and methods are protected under patent laws; similarly, slogans, names, titles, and symbols can be trademarked.
Some exceptions for copyright protection laws are:
- Library – Protected work can be copied for its preservation in the libraries.
- Educational use – The law doesn’t apply if the work is used for learning and education purposes.
- Specialized format – Producing and distributing the protected work in the specialized format to help people with disabilities is also not considered copyright infringement.
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is a violation of someone's intellectual property rights. In other words, it is the theft of someone else's original creation. A creator has copyright protection for as long as he is alive. However, the term of protection ends after 70 years of his death. Anonymous creation, on the other hand, has the protection of 95 years from its publication.
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