Copyrights

• Author: Randy Joyner
• Pages: 157-158

Page 157

A copyright gives the owner the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, or license original material. Further, the owner also receives the exclusive right to produce or license the production of derivatives of that material. In essence, a copyright provides protection to the owner guaranteeing that material cannot be copied without the owner's permission. Under the current law, materials are covered whether or not a copyright notice is attached and whether or not the material is registered.

However, an exception exists for the fair use of the material. The fair use of copyrighted material includes such use as reproduction for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research and is not considered an infringement of a copyright. Thus, fair use allows an individual to reproduce the material for non-profit activities.

Originally, copyrights referred only to written materials. However, copyrights have been extended to include: (1) literary materials; (2) musical materials, including any accompanying words; (3) dramatic materials, including any accompanying music; (4) pantomimes and choreographic materials; (5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural materials; (6) motion pictures and other audiovisual materials; (7) sound recordings; and (8) architectural materials. Thus, material must be original and published in a concrete medium of expression to be covered by a copyright. In other words, for material to be eligible for copyright protection, a tangible product must exist. Consequently, copyright protection does not extend to any original material for ideas, procedures, processes, systems, methods of operation, concepts, principles, or discovery, regardless of the form in which the material is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied.

The owner of a copyright has the right to do and authorize any of the following: (1) to reproduce the copyrighted material in copies; (2) to prepare derivative materials based on the original copyrighted material; (3) to distribute copies of the copyrighted material to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending; (4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic materials, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual materials, to perform the copyrighted material publicly; and (5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic...