Under the laws of more than 160 countries, copyright is granted automatically to the author upon the event of recording a creative work of expression in a tangible form, be it paint on canvas, pixels in a digital camera, or pencil on paper.
Under USA law, since 1989 there have been no "formalities" required to obtain copyright -- prior to that the publication may have been required to be registered or marked with a copyright notice (Copyright, date, name of author). Copyright notice is optional today, but may be useful as evidence that an infringement was "willful", which is an element of a criminal copyright indictment.
Copyright ownership and priority may be easier to prove if it is registered with the Copyright Office in a person's government. The drawback is that you must pay a fee and submit a copy to have any work registered. Forms can be obtained online through the Library of Congress. A registration may also make it simpler for potential licensees to locate the proper owners of copyrights.
As a bonus, the US Copyright Office registration allows the registered copyright owner to sue for "statutory damages" in lieu of having to prove "actual" damages.
Wiki User
∙ 2016-10-03 12:41:25No, copying and pasting is copyright though.
It wouldn't be bad to copyright something, it would be bad to infringe someone else's copyright.
how can you tell if something is still under copyright law? who can be persecuted if a copyright law is broken? the copyright laws only protect works that? can facts be copyrighted?
Copyright free means that something is not protected by a copyright. This means that there are no restrictions on the use of whatever is copyright free.
Yes.
Copyright protection is automatic, so it actually takes effort not to copyright something you create. That being said, copyright allows the creator to ascribe value do and potentially derive income from their creation.
No. With copyright, you should assume something IS protected, until you have evidence to say otherwise. Copyright applies to something as soon as it is fixed in a tangible form. No (C) symbol is needed.
Yes.
It means that if you copy something copyright and don't give it its props (or credit) you will be sued
The US Copyright Office, listed at the related link below:
It depends on whether you have the right or not. If you control the copyright to something (i.e., you drew/painted/wrote it), you have the exclusive right to copy it or authorize others to do so. If you do not control the copyright, you need an exemption in the law or permission from the copyright holder.
You need permission from the copyright holder or an exemption in the law.