Copyright is legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works. Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings. The purpose of copyright is not only to protect the rights of the creators of works but also to ensure that there are opportunities for further research and creativity to flow through earlier works.

Copyright laws are legislated by individual countries and may extend to a variety of different protections. Copyright is not just a US thing, copyright legislation exists throughout the world. Treaties that serve as agreements to honor the copyright laws of other countries. Some well-known treaties include the Buenos Aires Convention and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

Intellectual Property Rights encompasses a set of legal concepts that include copyright.

 In additional to copyright law, there are patent and trademark laws. While these are the primary areas that are  covered, additional rights related to intellectual property may be included by jurisdictions.

• Copyright =  rights surrounding the creation and dissemination of original creative works of authorship
• Trademarks = Business and product names
• Patents = Inventions

Patents and Trademarks are not covered by copyright laws but rather are based on other legislation.

In order to be protected by copyright:

• The work must be a "Work of authorship. Those covered by copyright include:

  • writing (both formal and informal), including laboratory notes, literature

  • internet pages, presentation slides or other presentation files, computer programs 

  • music (written or recorded)

  • art and most images, including photographs and computer-generated images.

• The work MUST be original and fixed.

Copyright is not extended to:

•  Commonly known facts and data *  (though the creative organization of facts and data and the inclusion of new information can be)
•   Most government documents

Items that have not been fixed into a medium - example:  A presentation that was not recorded.

For more information on what is covered by copyright see Section 102-194 of the U.S. code linked below

For an item to be Fixed, it must have been recorded on some form of media. A book would be printed or available as an e-book; a song is recorded or written down (words and/or music notation); a website is available for viewing; a photo has been printed, or made available as a file,etc.

When an intellectual property is fixed, proof of authorship is supported and visible to others.                                                                 

Until March 1989, the copyright symbol was a required element for works that were covered by copyright.

Since 1989 (after the Berne Convention), it is no longer mandatory to have a copyright symbol displayed on a work. However, the    inclusion of the symbol is still encouraged and registration of copyright with the U.S. Copyright office will provided added support in the case that the use of your work needs to be litigated.

Copyright ownership gives the holder of the copyright six exclusive rights:

• The right to reproduce and make copies of an original work;
• The right to prepare derivative works based on the original work;
• The right to distribute copies to the public by sale or another form of transfer, such as rental or lending;
• The right to publicly perform the work;
• The right to publicly display the work, and
• The right to perform sound recordings publicly through digital audio transmission.

These rights may be in part or as a whole be transferred to others (until recently a very typical requirement for academic publishing) or through licensing such as via a Creative Commons license.

Rights can also expire and works can pass into Public Domain.

The purchase of a copyright work does not transfer the author's rights to the purchaser. The copyright owner still retains the rights for reproduction, adaption and distribution.