Copyright for Students

Expression

The words you use to tell a story, the picture that you paint, and the lyrics to a song you wrote are all types of "expression." Until you set these things down on paper or in a Recording, they are nothing more than ideas. Ideas in and of themselves are not protectable by copyright, only the way they are expressed is protected. The copyright law protects expression only when it is Fixed in a way that others can read or see it.

Derivative Work

a work that is "based upon one or more preexisting works." One of the Exclusive Rights of a Copyright Owner is to make derivative works. The United States Copyright Act gives many examples of what is a derivative work. One example is a motion picture based upon a book. If you create a derivative work with the Permission of the owner of the underlying work, you as the author of the derivative work can obtain a copyright covering the original material you contributed.

Collective Work

a work, such as an encyclopedia or anthology, that includes a number of separate smaller works.

Intellectual Property

all kinds of intangible (not physical) types of property that people can own. Unlike physical property, Intellectual Properties are solely creations of law and have no independent existence. Intellectual Property under U.S. law encompasses rights in copyrights, patents, Trademarks, as well as Trade Secrets, Rights of Publicity and Moral Rights. For more information on Patents and Trademarks follow this link to the website for the US Patent and Trademark Office. Where copyrights and patents are governed solely by federal law in the US, trademarks are governed by both state and federal law, and trade secrets and rights of publicity solely by state law.

Exclusive Right

A Copyright Owner owns all or any one of the "exclusive rights" of copyright in a work. Those rights are listed in Section 106 of the United States Copyright Act and include the right to (1) reproduce the work, (2) prepare Derivative Works of it, (3) distribute copies of it, (4) perform it publicly and (5) display it publicly.

Fixation

A work is not entitled to copyright protection until it is "fixed in a tangible medium." For example, a song that has been created and even performed but which has never been written out in sheet music or recorded has no copyright.

First Sale Doctrine

The "first sale" doctrine recognizes that ownership of a copyright is different from ownership of a material object that is the subject of a copyright. For example, owning a copy of the book "The Catcher in the Rye" does not mean that you own the copyright in the story. Under the first sale doctrine, the owner of a lawfully-made copy of a copyrighted work may sell, rent or transfer that copy or publicly display that copy without the Copyright Owner's Permission. That means you can buy a book or a videotape and give it to friend or sell it at a yard sale, but you cannot make a copy of that book or videotape and sell or give that copy away. But note that there is an exception to the first sale doctrine for the rental of Sound Recordings and computer programs. To rent copies of copyrighted sound recordings or computer programs, you must get permission from the copyright owner. A hot issue these days is whether the first sale doctrine should apply at all to the Internet and other digital media where owners of lawfully-made copies of works can transmit copies of those works and still keep their lawfully-made copies.

Idea

This language means that no one can monopolize an idea or subject matter under a claim of copyright. Put another way, copyright law protects the Expression of an idea but not the idea itself. Can you imagine if the people who were the first to write stories about a girl wanting to play basketball or about a boy and a girl falling in love were able to stop everyone else from writing stories about those subjects? It would make it really hard to create original works and would defeat the purpose of the copyright law, which is to promote the progress of the arts and to secure for the public the benefit of authors' creative activities.

Infringement

Under Section 501 of the United States Copyright Act, anyone who violates any of the Exclusive Rights of the Copyright Owner is a copyright "infringer." To prove copyright infringement, the plaintiff must show (1) that the defendant (the alleged infringer) copied from the original author's (the plaintiff) work, either by actually copying plaintiff's work or by having plaintiff's work in mind when the defendant composed his work, and (2) that, taken together, the elements copied by the defendant amount to "too much" in terms of quantity and importance, and that the audiences for the two works will see the similarities between defendant's work and the protected elements in the plaintiff's work.

Copyright Notice

You may have seen on a book the following notice "© [name of copyright owner] [year of creation]" or, in the case of a CD or other Sound Recording, "[name of copyright owner] [year of creation]." These are called copyright notices. Prior to January 1, 1978, if there was a so-called "general Publication" of a work without a complete copyright notice, the work could immediately become part of the Public Domain. Under the current United States Copyright Act, a copyright notice is no longer required to be placed on a work in order to have copyright protection but many people still use the notice because it lets the world know who the owner of the copyright is and that the work is protected by copyright.

Copyright

a "bundle of rights" that the creator of a work is entitled to control if the work is "an original work of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression." This means that in order to be entitled to copyright protection, the work has to be something you created (and didn't copy from another work) and set down in some physical form, like in writing, on videotape, in a sound recording, in a computer program or on a computer screen. The "bundle of rights" that are included in copyright are the right to: (1) distribute the work, (2) reproduce (or make copies of) the work, (3) display the work (for example, a painting that you want to allow a museum to publicly display), (4) perform the work, and (5) create Derivative Works based upon the original work.

Copyright Holder/Owner

a person or a company who owns any one of the Exclusive Rights of copyright in a work. Copyright ownership is separate from the ownership of the work itself. For instance, when an artist sells a painting to someone, the artist usually retains the copyright in the painting. That means the buyer of the painting will have it to keep in her house or office but the artist will retain the rights to copy, display and distribute the painting, and make other works based on the painting. Copyrights not only can be sold independent of the work itself, but the different exclusive rights can also be sold separately. For instance, an artist could sell the right to make copies of his artwork to one person and could sell the right to publicly display it to someone else.

Compilation

a work formed by collecting preexisting material or facts and selecting or arranging them in an original way.

Master Use License

an agreement by which the Copyright Owner of a Sound Recording (usually, the record company) grants Permission to someone else to use the Sound Recording in a visual work. For example, if a recording is used as background music for a movie or television commercial, the producer will need to get a master use license from the record company (or other copyright owner). Note that the producer also has to get a Synchronization License from the copyright owner of the song itself (also called the Musical Composition). Back To Top

License

the permission granted by a copyright owner (also know as the "licensor") to the person requesting the right to exercise one or more of these exclusive rights (also know as the "licensee"). For example, if you wanted to create a movie based on a book (which would be a Derivative Work), you would need a license from the owner of copyright in the book. A license is usually subject to certain restrictions or conditions. For example, the licensor may require the licensee to submit materials for review and approval by the licensor and to make certain payments or Royalties to the licensor. A license is often limited to a specific time period and often to a specific geographic territory or language. If you wanted to have an exclusive license (you're the only one who could do what you're getting permission to do), the license would have to be in writing. If you simply wanted permission to create the derivative work and didn't care if others could do the same thing (a non-exclusive license), the license would not have to be in writing. But remember, it's always better to get it in writing!

Fair Use

the right of the public to make reasonable use of copyrighted material in special circumstances without the Copyright Owner's Permission. The United States Copyright Act recognizes that fair use of a copyrighted work may be used "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research." Factors to be considered include (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is for a commercial purpose or is for non-profit educational purposes; (2) what kind of work is the copyrighted work (for instance, is it creative or factual); (3) the amount and importance of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential commercial market for or value of the copyrighted work. Whether or not a fair use has been made of a copyrighted work is not always easy to determine and there have been many lawsuits to determine whether or not a use is "fair." Where there is doubt about whether something qualifies for the fair use exception, you should request a License from the Copyright Holder.