What is a Copyright?  ©

A "copyright" is a bundle of exclusive rights in and to a creative work.
Copyrights arise under and are governed exclusively by the United States Copyright Act. The Act gives the owner of the copyright in a work the exclusive right to use the work and to authorize others to use the work. The Act also gives the owner the right to bring a lawsuit against any person who uses the work without the owner's permission.
 
A copyright comes into existence upon the creation of an "original work of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression." If these elements are present, the work will be protected by copyright, even if the work is never published or the copyright is never registered.
"Original work" simply means that the work is original to the creator, and was not copied from any other work. If two creators working independently each create the same work without any knowledge of the other's work, each work will be an "original work," and each work will be protected under copyright.

A copyright protects only the expression contained in a work. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, theories, concepts, principles or discoveries.
 
The owner of the copyright in a work has the exclusive right to exercise or to authorize others to exercise the following rights with respect to the work:

*    The right to display the work publicly
*    The right to reproduce the work in photocopies, electronic copies or other formats (including the reproduction of a pictorial or graphic in or on any type of merchandise)
*    The right to prepare derivative works based upon the work (A derivative work is a work based upon or derived from a pre-existing work.)
*    The right to distribute copies of the work to the public (i.e. publication rights)
*    The right to perform the work publicly

Any exercise of any of these exclusive rights without the permission of the copyright owner constitutes copyright infringement. The copyright owner can bring a lawsuit to prevent or stop any infringement, and to collect money damages.

 

Copyright Notice ©

A proper copyright notice consists of three elements:

*    the symbol "©", the word "copyright" or the abbreviation "Copr.";
*    the year of first publication; and
*    the name of the copyright owner

In certain situations, the year of first publication may be omitted from the notice for pictorial, graphic or sculptural works.
As of March 1, 1989, copyright notice is not required. However, there are some legal and practical benefits to placing a copyright notice on published copies of your work. If a notice has been placed on copies of the work, a defendant in an infringement action cannot use a defense of innocent infringement to reduce any damage award. In addition, from a practical standpoint, a copyright notice informs that the public that you are aware of your rights under copyright law, and lets others know who to contact for permission if they want to use your work.

How Can The Owner Of A Copyright Grant Rights To Other Persons?
The owner of the copyright in a work has the exclusive right to exercise the rights included in the copyright and to permit others to exercise those rights. In most cases, the owner of the copyright in a work will have to grant rights to a publisher, film producer, multimedia developer, advertising or design client or other person in order to realize some financial return from his or her copyright.
All of the rights included in a copyright are divisible into an infinite number of sub rights. A copyright owner may grant the entire copyright or any or all of the rights or sub rights included in the copyright to any other person.
A grant of the entire copyright is called an assignment. A grant of one or more of the rights included in a copyright is called a license. Licenses may be exclusive or nonexclusive.

*    Under an exclusive license, only the person receiving the grant may exercise the rights granted. During the term of the license, the copyright owner may not exercise the rights granted, and may not grant those rights to any other person.


*    Under a nonexclusive license, the person receiving the grant may exercise the rights granted, but those rights may also be granted to and exercised by others, including the copyright owner.

Any grant that is not in writing and signed by the grantor will be a nonexclusive license, regardless of the intent of the parties. In other words, a license must be in writing and must be signed by the owner of the rights granted in order to be an exclusive license. Similarly, an assignment must be in writing, and must be signed by the owner of the copyright. A nonexclusive license can be in writing, or it can be unwritten. However, a nonexclusive license that is not in writing and signed by the grantor can be overridden by a subsequent written and signed exclusive license.