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Copyright Law
The rights assigned to the creator of an original work, for a certain time period, in which its publication, distribution and adaptation are protected.
3,742 Questions
Why is copyright infringement wrong?
Copyright allows creators to protect their intellectual property for a set amount of time. One situation in which it might be considered wrong to copyright would be if you are attempting to copyright something that was created by someone else and used without their permission.
Do you have to be a certain age to get a copyright?
No. According to the US Copyright Office:
Minors may claim copyright, and the Copyright Office issues registrations to minors, but state laws may regulate the business dealings involving copyrights owned by minors. For information on relevant state laws, consult an attorney.
What are copyrights and intellectual property rights?
Copyright law gives creators of original works the exclusive right to copy, alter, distribute, or perform/display the work, or authorize others to do so, for a limited time.
Patent law gives inventors of devices, processes, or plant hybrids the exclusive write to make, use, import, and sell the invention for a limited time.
How much does it cost to copyright a poem?
Unofficially (and for just the cost of postage) you can copyright anything by putting it in a envelope, addressing it to yourself, apply postage, and send it through the mail. The next day when you receive it, DO NOT OPEN IT! It will have a post mark on it PROVING you wrote it on or before the postmark. In many countries a creative work is protected by copyright from the moment it is first written down. In the United States, this is also true, but you will need to register your copyright before you can effectively enforce it. In fact, there are other valuable reasons to register it immediately after you first publish it. There are simple forms to file and moderate fees involved, so you should consider registration for any valuable works. Sending yourself a copy in the mail (unlike registration) does not notify the world of your ownership so that people can contact you for a distribution license or commission additional works. :-)
Fair use or fair dealing provisions allow certain limited unlicensed uses.
How does fair use fit with copyright law?
The "fair use" exception applies when a portion of a copyrighted work is used for purposes of, criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research.
Up how much can you be fined for copyright?
Under current US law fines for non criminal infringement can range as high as $150,000.00 USD per infringement. However if the standard for felony criminal copyright infringement is met the fine can reach $250,000.00 per infringement. Additionally in the case of repeat offenses all fines can be doubled.
Copyrights are issued and recorded by the Copyright Office (see link). Trademarks and patents are governed by the US Patent and Trademark Office (see link). The two are separate agencies. Their only connection is that they both administer Intellectual property.
In the US, the Copyright Office administers copyright, and the US Patent and Trademark Office issues patents. In the broader sense, Congress is responsible.
What are the effects on the software industry when people break the copyright law?
The criminals who break copyright can have an unlimited fine or/and go to prison for up to ten years. But most the time, the owners of the copyrighted work just want money, so they may have to pay damages and give up any profits you may have made (this also goes for pirate films too).
Statutory fines are limited, and most countries give a maximum jail sentence below 10 years. In many cases, the rightsholders will simply send a cease-and-desist notice; typically, damages are only sought in extreme cases (to "make an example" of someone).
There are other ways to look at this beyond the penalties on the infringer, however.
Piracy tends to lead to ever more elaborate End User Licensing Agreements and anti-copying measures. DRM, for example, arose as a defense against music piracy: if record labels could trust consumers, they wouldn't feel the need to resort to such restrictive programs. One of the problems with DRM was is limited consumers' ability to make legal (or "accepted within current business practice," which is very different) copies of materials.
It's also useful to think less about a monolithic Music Industry and consider how individual creators are affected. If you really love that band, why wouldn't you want to reward them for the entertainment they've provided? You might hate Microsoft, but don't you appreciate Valve?
In the long term, a band or small gaming studio, for example, might have to give up and go back to the day job if too many people are sharing their works without any payment going back to them. By uploading your favorite album, you might kill the band.
How is public domain different from copyright?
Materials protected by copyright may only be used by their creators or rightsholders; anyone else wishing to use them must get permission.
Materials in the public domain are available for free use for everyone.
Can you copy things as fair use?
Fair Use is the ability to use a work without permission and even against the wishes of the copyright owner. To qualify as fair use the use must fall within one of the exceptions to copyright protection. According to the Copyright Office, the following are the qualifiers:
- The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
- The nature of the copyrighted work
- The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
- The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work
I'll give a couple of examples.
Rule 1: Why you're using it is important. For example, there is a You Tube video where a guy shows filming mistakes in The Matrix. He uses scenes from the film in order to show where they made mistakes (Trinity says "Dodge This!" and shoots an Agent in the temple. But he falls down on his back.) These clips from the movie are clearly fair use.
Rule 3: Amount used. You get more leeway copying 30 seconds from a movie than you get copying 30 seconds from a song.
There is an old saying that Lawyers who handle intellectual property have wives with mink coats.
Is Waltzing Matilda public domain?
The song itself is in the public domain, but certain settings, arrangements, performances, and recordings may have their own protection.
Where do you place the copyright symbol?
There is no requirement to register a copyright or to display a copyright notice for a work to be protected. Copyright protection is automatic, as soon as a work of sufficient originality is "fixed in a tangible medium, perceptible to human eye, machine reader or other device".
However if you want or need the additional protection a formally registered copyright can provide, contact the copyright office in your country for the proper procedure and applicable fees.
How much of a song can you use with copyright?
There is no predetermined amount of copyrighted material that can be used before it is considered a violation. Each case is judged by the planned use & it's purpose.
US Copyright Law sets out criteria that has to be considered before something can be determined to be "fair use"
# The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes # The nature of the copyrighted work # The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole # The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work
Can you be put in jail for copyrighting?
No, copyrighting a work is your right, as long as you are the creator.
You can, however, go to jail for copyright infringement, although most punishment is meted out in fines.
How do you make the Copywright symbol?
© will show on your screen if you use the following procedure: --Set your keyboard on "number lock" so that you can use the numerical keyboard rather than the numerals across the top line of the keyboard.
--Place your cursor where you want the © symbol to appear.
--Press and hold the ALT key as you key in 0169 on the numerical keyboard.
--Release the ALT key. The © symbol will appear at the cursor's location. With that procedure, you have used an ASCII codeto type a symbol. For formal instructions and a complete list of ASCII codes for various signs and symbols, see http://www.killersites.com/webDesignersHandbook/ascii.htm
How can you protect yourself against charges of copyright infringement?
To protect your work using the copyright laws, you must sue violators and prove they infringed your exclusive rights. You may also report online violations by members of a service provider company and demand the service provider remove or disable the infringing work. Under some circumstances you may also report a criminal violation of your copyright and the FBI will investigate.
The U.S. copyright law automatically protects any original work of yours that is a written, video (movie, documentary, etc.), musical or art form from being used without your permission. A copyright is the set of exclusive rights you receive from the federal government to publish, copy, adapt, display or perform your original work, which is good from the time you create it until 70 years after your death. The work must be entirely your own creation, though, in order to qualify.
But, if your work was created as a paid employee, or if you were paid by commission to create the work, the employer owns the copyright, unless you both agreed otherwise before the work was created.
In fact, only certain limited categories of commissioned works fall under this rule and initial (author's) copyright of everything else is owned by the person creating the works, regardless of what any agreement purports. The duration of copyright on works made for hire (as an employee or otherwise) is 95 years from first publication, if any, or 120 years from creation, whichever expires first.
In order for your creation to be copyright protected, it must be concrete, as in written form, film, audio, computer memory, etc. Once it's written, filmed, etc., you don't have to publicly sell or distribute the work. It is yours to do with as you please, but if you do plan to sell or distribute the work, it should include a copyright notice, as a warning to others. To operate as an effective notice this must be the word "Copyright", the symbol for copyright, or the abbreviation of the word Copyright ("Copr."), the year of first publication, and the name of the copyright owner. Notice should be placed where easily visible on the work, if not also digitally embedded. Removal or tampering with a copyright notice is also a violation of copyright law.
It's not necessary to register a copyright, but it is advisable to do so, which can be done for a small charge. Registration give the copyright owner access to the US federal courts as well as possible claims for "statutory damages".
You can obtain a copyright registration application by calling the Copyright Forms Hotline at 202-707-9100, or write to Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20559, or use the online forms at copyright.gov
What action must a person take to obtain a copyright for their work?
Nothing. Works of sufficient originality are automatically protected as soon as they are fixed in a tangible medium.
The intent of copyright law is to protect the rights of creators, and thereby encourage and promote creativity. If anyone could copy what you do, and use and sell it as their own, you would not fully benefit from your own abilities.
If you were a sculptor, but anyone could make money by copying and selling your sculptures, you'd probably need to have a "day job" waiting tables or answering phones, and you wouldn't be able to spend much time making art. Copyright allows you to ascribe value to (and make money from) your intellectual property--and hard work--with the hope that if you're good enough at it, eventually you can do it full time.
Copyright also means that a genuine or authorized reproduction will meet the standards of the original products. Shoddy copies could diminish consumers' opinions of the product, and reduce demand for it.
Basically the copyright laws are set-up to promote the creation of new things and ideas. If the laws didn't exist, then some people might not be willing to share their ideas and we would have fewer new innovations.
Open source refers to code that is distributed outside of the manufacturer's company. Microsoft does not allow the code the programmers write for their programs outside of their company, so their code is proprietary, closed source.
OpenOffice allows their code to be used by others. The reason for this is so that others can make improvements and customized enhancements.
Open source is almost always free, where proprietary software has to be paid for, and is sometimes quite expensive.
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What is the purpose of a conversion factor?
The purpose of a conversion factor is so that people would be able to convert things easier and much faster and be able to get their work and other tasks done faster as well.
