About Copyright

Copyright happens automatically as soon as a copy of the work is created. Just because you don’t see the copyright symbol doesn’t mean the work is “public domain” (meaning you have the right to use it freely). In fact, the opposite is usually true. The symbol itself can provide the reader with important information including who owns the copyright and the first year of publication. A person does not have to register their work with the Copyright Office for action to be taken against a person infringing on that work; however it will help. Copyright registration is a public record and puts other people on notice.

The copyright “owner” has the exclusive rights to:

• reproduce the work.
  
• prepare “spin off” created from the work.
  
• distribute copies or phonorecords (cassette tapes, CD’s LP’s, 45 rpm’s as well as other formats) by sale or transfer of ownership, rental, lease or lending.
  
• perform the work publicly (for plays, musicals, poetry, choreography, pantomimes, movies and other audiovisuals).
  
• display the work publicly (poems, musicals, plays, choreography, pantomimes, pictorial, graphics, sculptures, individual images from movies and other audiovisual works).
  
• perform publicly (by digital audio transmission) sound recordings.

They can also give permission for others to do the same.

Copyrights can be obtained for the following types of works: literary, musical, dramatic, choreographic, pictoral, graphic and sculpted images, motion picture and other audiovisual, and sound recordings.