Copyright is a legal concept enacted by most governments which gives the author or creator of an original work rights over how that work is reproduced.
Typically, the author/creator is granted exclusive rights to redistribute, adapt, derive, sell, or reuse their original work for a set period of time, defined by the specific country's legislation. In many cases, the protection extends well beyond when the creator of the work dies, ensuring that their work is protected for their entire lifetime. If somebody else who does not hold the copyright over the work attempts to utilize the work in an unauthorized way (for example, if they try to copy and distribute the work to other people), then they are in violation of that copyright and can face severe legal consequences. Copyright is legally enforceable and upheld by the legislative and judicial bodies of each country. Only the copyright holder can grant others permission to use their work.
In addition, it is important to differentiate between ideas/facts and expressions. Copyright only protects the expression of ideas or facts, but not the ideas or facts themselves. If two creators have the same idea for something, but the final works are two completely different, unrelated manifestations of that idea, then no rights have been violated.
In a lot of countries, copyright is an automatic process and protects works as soon as they are created. However, in some countries, such as the United States, these works must be fixed in a tangible medium; this means, it needs to be written down, recorded, designed, drawn, or otherwise made into some kind of physical or digital creation.
Copyright dates back as far as 1710, when the first copyright law was passed in England. Called the Statute of Anne, authors were granted 14 years of legal protection to their books, preventing others from copying or redistributing them.
In the three centuries since the Statute of Anne, copyright has grown remarkably complex. New technologies and new ways of creative expression have necessitated the expansion of copyright to these new domains, to uneven effects. In addition, as the world has grown more globalized, copyright has taken on an international character. While countries have the power to create and legislate copyright on their own, they must also work together and adopt standards that allow for movement of works and creators between geographical boundaries.
Copyright in the United States is enshrined in the Constitution. Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, commonly referred to as the "Copyright Clause," states that Congress has the power "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." In other words, the Copyright Clause makes copyright a permanent part of legislation. However, even though the Copyright Clause ensures that works will promote scientific and artistic progress, copyright legislation only made copyright terms more restrictive. Following is a timeline of some of the most significant legislation that focused on copyright law in the United States. This is not all-inclusive and does not cover every provision of the laws; please see the resources at the bottom of the page to learn more about the history of U.S. copyright law.
Copyright Act of 1790: granted authors protection over their works for 14 years with the ability to get one renewal term of 14 years, for a total of 28 years of protection; they have the exclusive right to reprint, distribute, share, and publish their work. This also established a system of registration: creators had to register their copyright with their District Court for the registration to be valid. This job would later be the responsibility of the U.S. Copyright Office and the need for works to be registered would cease in 1988 after the international Berne Convention on copyright.
Copyright Act of 1831: extended the base term of 14 years to 28 years; the renewal term remains at 14 years, for a total of 42 years.
Copyright Act of 1909: maintained the base term of 28 years, but extended the renewal term to 28 years, for a total of 56 years.
Copyright Act of 1976: largely overhauled the copyright system. Now, works were protected for the life of the author plus 50 years (meaning, copyright expired 50 years after the author died). At the same time, it extended the copyright for works published before 1978 (when the law went into effect) by extending the second term from 28 years to 47 years, resulting in a total of 75 years of protection. In addition, works for hire, pseudonymous/anonymous works, and corporate works were protected for 95 years from the publication date or 120 years from creation date, whichever happens sooner.
The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (1998): amended the Copyright Act of 1976 extended the copyright term to life of the author plus 70 years while reducing the protection term for works for hire, pseudonymous/anonymous works, and corporate works to 75 years from the publication date or 100 years after creation date. In addition, works that were published before 1978 were granted a longer term: their renewal term was extended from 47 years to 67 years, for a total of 95 years.
Multiple other acts have amended the 1976 Act, and you can find links at the bottom of this page to learn more about some of these.
Copyright protects original works of authorship, defined within the U.S. Code as:
As a reminder, copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed. As soon as any of these things are created, copyright is granted to them; there is no longer any need to register copyright with the U.S. copyright office unless you are taking legal action over infringements of your copyright. Co-authors all receive full ownership.
Essentially, any work you create is protected under copyright as long as it is fixed into a tangible medium and is original, even in small amounts. If you produce work in the course of your employment, the copyright holder may actually be your employer, but this depends on the terms of your contract and the institution's copyright policies.
The public domain is made up of of works that are ineligible for copyright protection or have expired copyrights. No permissions are needed to copy or use public domain works. Nobody can attach new copyrights to materials within the public domain, but any derivatives or adaptations of these works are eligible for a new copyright on the derivative only.
Some works, such as government documents, statistical techniques and judicial opinions are simply not eligible for copyright and so are always within the public domain. The copyright holder may also choose to dedicate their work to the public domain, giving up their control over their work.
At the beginning of every year, new works enter into the public domain as they exhaust their copyright terms. Due to the multiple changes in the length of copyright terms and removing the registration requirement, it can be confusing to keep track of what works are eligible to enter the public domain. Cornell University's Copyright Term and the Public Domain webpage updates yearly, indicating which years of creation are now in the public domain, as well as addressing the various scenarios that arose out of the multiple copyright acts.
Copyright protects original works of authorship.
Patents protect inventions. Patent protections allow inventors a similar protection to copyright. They are given the ability to hold exclusive rights over the sale, creation, sharing, and importation of their invention for a limited amount of time.
A trademark protects words, phrases, symbols, or designs identifying the source of the goods or services of one party and distinguishes them from others to prevent consumer confusion.
History of U.S. Copyright Law
General Copyright Resources