Copyright Information.
When you create original material -- for example, graphics,
text, photographs, and music -- copyright protection arises
as soon as you "fix" the material. A work is "original"
in the copyright sense if it owes its origin to the author
and was not copied from some preexisting work. Novelty or
uniqueness is not required. A work is "fixed"
when it is made "sufficiently permanent or stable to
permit it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated
for a period of more than transitory duration." Under
current U.S. law, you do not need to file a copyright registration
application to get copyright protection, nor do you need
to use a copyright notice.
The copyright owner has the exclusive right to reproduce,
modify, distribute, publicly display, and publicly perform
the copyrighted work. These rights are infringed when someone
exercises one or more of them without permission. If someone
uses your graphics or other content on their Web site without
your permission, they are probably infringing your reproduction
and public display rights. (I say "probably" because,
in certain special circumstances, people are permitted to
use copyrighted material without getting permission. I'll
discuss "fair use," the most important of the
limitations on the copyright owner's rights, later in this
article).
Types of Works Protected by Copyright.
Copyright law protects "works of authorship."
The Copyright Act states that works of authorship include
the following types of works:
Literary works. Novels, nonfiction prose, poetry, newspaper
articles and newspapers, magazine articles and magazines,
computer software, software documentation and manuals, training
manuals, manuals, catalogs, brochures, ads (text), and compilations
such as business directories. Musical works. Songs, advertising
jingles, and instrumentals. Dramatic works. Plays, operas,
and skits. Pantomimes and horeographic works. Ballets, modern
dance, jazz dance, and mime works. Pictorial, graphic, and
sculptural works. Photographs, posters, maps, paintings,
drawings, graphic art, display ads, cartoon strips and cartoon
characters, stuffed animals, statues, paintings, and works
of fine art. Motion pictures and other audiovisual works.
Movies, documentaries, travelogues, training films and videos,
television shows, television ads, and interactive multimedia
works. Sound recordings. Recordings of music, sounds, or
words. Architectural works. Building designs, whether in
the form of architectural plans, drawings, or the constructed
building itself.
Standards:
To receive copyright protection, a work must be "original"
and must be "fixed" in a tangible medium of expression.
Certain types of works are not copyrightable.
Originality:
The originality requirement is not stringent: A work is
original in the copyright sense if it owes its origin to
the author and was not copied from some preexisting work.
A work can be original without being novel or unique.
Betsy's book, How to Lose Weight, is original in the copyright
sense so long as Betsy did not create her book by copying
existing material--even if it's the millionth book to be
written on the subject of weight loss.
Only
minimal creativity is required to meet the originality requirement.
No artistic merit or beauty is required. A work can incorporate
preexisting material and still be original. When preexisting
material is incorporated into a new work, the copyright
on the new work covers only the original material contributed
by the author.
Developer's multimedia work incorporates a number of photographs
that were made by Photographer (who gave Developer permission
to use the photographs in the multimedia work). The multimedia
work as a whole owes its origin to Developer, but the photographs
do not. The copyright on the multimedia work does not cover
the photographs, just the material created by Developer.
Facts
owe their origin to no one and so are not original. A compilation
of facts (a work formed by collecting and assembling data)
is protected by copyright only to the extent of the author's
originality in the selection, coordination, and arrangement
of the facts.
Ralph created a neighborhood phone directory for his neighborhood
by going door-to-door and getting his neighbors' names and
phone numbers. The directory's facts (names and phone numbers)
are not original. Ralph's selection of facts was not original
(he "selected" every household in the neighborhood).
His coordination and arrangement of facts (alphabetical
order by last name) is routine rather than original. The
directory is not protected by copyright.
Fixation:
According to Section 101 of the Copyright Act, a work is
"fixed" when it is made "sufficiently permanent
or stable to permit it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise
communicated for a period of more than transitory duration."
It makes no difference what the form, manner, or medium.
An author can "fix" words, for example, by writing
them down, typing them on an old-fashioned typewriter, dictating
them into a tape recorder, or entering them into a computer.
A live television broadcast is "fixed" if it is
recorded simultaneously with the transmission.