Copyright Law

Different jurisdictions have various opinions on when the song "Happy Birthday to You" will enter the public domain. In European Union (EU) countries the copyright in the song will expire December 31, 2016 however the current copyright holder, Walter Chappel, claims that based on his 1935 purchase of the rights the copyright won't expire until 2030.

For all intents and purposes international copyright protection exists at the same moment it is effective in your home country. Between the Berne Copyright Convention, TRIPS and WIPO treaties, Pan-American Copyright Convention and the host of bi and multi lateral copyright agreements most signatories agree to honor each others intellectual porperty laws.

In the United States, a copyright notice consists of three elements::

1. the © symbol (in some cases (c) is substituted), the word "Copyright" or abbreviation "Copr.";
2. the first year of publication; and
3. the owner of the copyright, either by name, abbreviation, or other designation.

It depends who you talk to. For some creators, the rights afforded by copyright are their sole source of income. For others, "getting their names out there" is more important, and Creative Commons is a preferred option.

Yes, as "literary works," at least to the extent they contain original, copyrightable expression and are not simply copies of other non-copyrightable material. Non-copyrightable materials include works of US government, works for which copyright was never available or which has expired, facts, ideas, inventions, words or phrases, names, and so forth.

Commonly known as infringement. It is any action that would contravene one of the basic rights (see below) that copyright conveys.

The right to reproduce copies of the work

The right to create derivatives, adaptations and modifications

The right to distribute copies to the public

The right to perform the work publicly

The right to display the work publicly

The right to publicly perform music by digital audio transmission

Each of these is subject to statutory limitations that authorize some limited uses in limited circumstances.

There are many other types of copyright violations mentioned in a related question.

The song itself is controlled by Unichappell; various performances and recordings will have additional rightsholders.

If formal registration is available in your country, take advantage of it. Join a professional society in your discipline, register your works with them if possible, and make sure they have your correct contact information. Clearly mark the copyright holder on physical materials, and in the embedded metadata of digital files.

No; it will be protected through 2030, 70 years after the death of the songwriter, Arthur Luther.

Copyright law does not protect a business name. However, you might want to register a trademark on the name/brand. This can be done at a federal or U.S. state level. In the USA your brand is protected from infringement as soon as you first use it in commerce in association with your goods or services. However, registration provides more protection and simplifies any future efforts to enforce your rights in the brand.

If you plan to make money from the materials, or you would be upset to see others using the materials without your permission, you would want to assert (or register, if available) copyright. If you plan to use the materials as a logo, business name, or slogan (a "mark") in trade, you would want to register it as a trademark.

The story itself is in the public domain, but newer adaptations of it would still be protected. The 1937 Disney movie, for example, will be protected through 2032.

That's called 'software piracy'. Originally, people caught were sued by the program writers in civil court. However - it has now been transformed (quite rightly) into a criminal offence. Therefore - perpetrators are now arrested and charged with copyright theft.

Copyright on the Internet is quite similar to copyright in the off-line world. If an author publishes an original expression - writing, a photograph, a video, a music-clip online, graphics, he or she owns the copyright to such creation, exactly as the same person would have benefited from a copyright if the piece were published in a magazine, a radio show, etc. Protection occurs automatically (meaning, the creator acquires a copyright immediately once he or she "fixes" the work in the medium used (i.e., the Internet!)

It's a good idea to place the ©symbol with a year of copyright under the creation on the Webpage where it is displayed so as to notify users that the work is copyrighted, though, not doing so does not mean that the author/creator has relinquished his copyright...

One must realize that on the Internet, materials are a lot easier to copy or "lift" and therefore, it might be more difficult to enforce a copyright with respect to online information that is proprietary. However, the laws that apply to works exisiting in the real world will continue to apply to the digital works in cyberspace.

Trial Software... such as Everest Ultimate Edition

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.

Since copyright protection is instantaneous all that is needed is to fulfill two requirements. The work must be of sufficient originality to qualify and it must be fixed in a tangible medium perceptible by human senses or by machine.

In most civilized countries, copyright protection for literary or artistic works starts from the moment the work is created. It lasts for as long as defined in the laws of the country where it was created.

For instance, in the USA it would generally be copyrighted for 95 years, although works of individual authors (not company employees) would last 70 years after his or her death, assuming anyone knows who the author was and when he or she died, and otherwise 120 years from the date of creation.

Originally the basis for US copyright law was established in the Constitution. For this reason Article 1 section 8 clause 8 has become known as the "copyright clause".

"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."

It was proposed on August 18th, 1787 and ratified for inclusion on September 17th, 1787

The trademark symbol is part of a name and as such must not be separated from the name. Therefore, a comma would follow the symbol.

Fonts are considered intellectual property under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which is intended to protect the rights of original content creators.

US copyright laws have been fuzzy on the issue of copyrighting fonts and, until recently, there had been little direct case law to help decipher the confusion. Historically, fonts were excluded from copyright law; more recently, however, font foundries have succeeded in protecting their products under the DMCA.

Under the DMCA, if you license (allow use under the terms of a contract) your fonts, as opposed to giving them away free, not only is the design is considered copyrighted, but the font as a whole is covered by protection usually reserved for software. Exchanging licensed fonts is considered software piracy, which constitutes a civil tort.

Agfa Monotype and Internation Type Corporation have been particularly aggressive about protecting their rights in court. They won a victory against developers of font manipulation software that allow letter designs to be tweaked; in 2002 Agfa Monotype settled out of court with Red Hat for copyright infringement and violation of the Lanham Act on the grounds of unfair competition because Red Hat was distributing Agfa typefaces, or facsimiles thereof, without a license. Red Hat, which initially argued copyrights and trade marks on fonts were unenforceable or invalid, eventually agreed to pay a $500,000 charge connected with their infringement. Other details of the settlement remain private.

Apple and Microsoft are currently (2009) in talks about font licensing.

Another concern font foundries have raised is against software that allows font embedding, particularly on the internet. Some of the larger foundries are considering embedding code that would restrict web designers ability to use a font on more than one website without paying an additional licensing fee. Needless to say, the idea is not popular with designers.

While fonts can, and should be protected property (this is some people's livelihood, after all), the key to exercising copyright protection rests with the courts, which is expensive. In practice, it's very difficult to protect fonts as intellectual property, especially on a small-scale basis. The larger corporations are doing their best to establish case law that can be applied to the entire industry, however.

It is not necessary to formally register your work with a Copyright Office for it to be protected.