Articles » Cyberlaw Fundamentals

Copyright law can be tricky for unqualified people. In many cases, when most people think of copyright, they automatically assume that copying someone else’s work without permission is illegal by law. It is important to clarify that copyright law makes it illegal to do many other things and not just copying.

Works eligible for copyright protection

• Literary works
• Musical works, including any accompanying words
• Dramatic works, including any accompanying music
• Pantomimes and choreographic works
• Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
• Motion pictures and other audiovisual works
• Sound recordings, which are works that result from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken, or other sounds
• Architectural works

The above list of categories should be viewed broadly. For example, computer software and certain compilations can be registered for copyright protection as “literary works”; maps and technical drawings or blueprints can be protected as “pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works.”

Rights of the copyright owner

• Reproduce the copyrighted work in copies and phonorecords
• Prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work
• Distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work by sale or other transfer of ownership, by rental, by leasing, or by lending
• Perform the copyrighted work publicly by displaying it or by means of a digital audio transmission
• Display the work publicly if it is a literary, musical, dramatic, or choreographic work; a pantomime; or a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work. This also applies to the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work
• Authorize others to exercise the above exclusive rights (subject to certain statutory limitations).

If you do any of the above without permission from the copyright owner, you could be liable for committing copyright infringement.

The most commonly violated right in a copyright infringement dispute or a lawsuit is the first one – the right to reproduce a copyrighted work.

The right to prepare derivative works is also a common target of violations. A derivative work is derived from another. The U.S. Copyright Act states the following regarding derivative works:

…a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as translation, music arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a “derivative work”…

For example, if you find a nice article on some website and then make some changes to it by rearranging a few items and editing a few sentences before distributing it to an e-mail subscription list, you will be violating the exclusive right to prepare derivative versions of the article.

While some of the exclusive rights in copyright law rarely apply to online activity, many often do. For example, since photographs, text, music, software, etc., can be protected by copyright law, the owner’s rights can be violated whenever someone else reproduces them or creates derivative versions of them on the Internet.

What is not protected by copyright?

Nobody can claim copyright over the following:

• Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, or discoveries
• Works that are not fixed in a tangible form (such as a choreographic work that has not been notated or recorded, or an improvisational speech that has not been written down)
• Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans
• Familiar symbols or designs
• Mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring
• Mere listings of ingredients or contents

Who can claim copyright?

The copyright initially belongs to the author who created the work. However, when there is more than one author of a single work, they are considered joint authors and share an indivisible interest in the work as a whole. If multiple authors contribute to a collective work, each author’s individual contribution to the collective work is protected by copyright separately.

Works made for hire

“Works made for hire” are a key exception to the general rule for claiming copyright. If works are made for hire, the author of such works is not the person who actually created the material. Instead, the individual or company who hired another party to create the work is considered the author and the copyright owner. This concept can be somewhat complicated and may have significant consequences for both the individual who creates the work and the hiring party. If you want to learn more, please take a look at our dedicated article on this matter (Works Made for Hire).

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