copyright

The right of literary property as recognized and sanctioned by positive law. An intangible, incorporeal right granted by statute to the author or originator of certain literary or artistic productions, whereby he is invested, for a specified period, with the sole and exclusive privilege of multiplying copies of the same and publishing and selling them.

Copyright protection subsists in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Works of authorship include the following categories:

(1) literary works;

(2) musical works, including any accompanying words;

(3) dramatic works, including any accompanying music;

(4) pantomimes and choreographic works;

(5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;

(6) motion pictures and other audiovisual works; and

(7) sound recordings.

In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.

Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C.A. No. 102.

Prior to the 1976 Copyright Act there was a distinction between common law and statutory protection whereby, generally, common law copyright protected works prior to publication and the federal copyright laws protected works following publication. The 1976 Act attempted to abolish all significant aspects of common law copyright and create a unified protection system by beginning statutory protection as soon as the work was reduced to a concrete form. 17 U.S.C.A. No. 102(a).

Under the 1976 Act an author is protected as soon as a work is recorded in some concrete way, since the Act protects all expressions upon fixation in a tangible medium. 17 U.S.C.A. No. 102(a). Protection under the 1976 Act is secure until fifty years after the death of the author. 17 U.S.C.A. No. 302(a). In addition to injunctive, impoundment, and civil damages relief, criminal penalties are also provided for copyright infringement. 17 U.S.C.A. No. 502 et seq.; 18 U.S.C.A. No. 2319.

See also adaptation right

- collective work

- common-law copyright

- compilation

- compulsory license

- created

- derivative work

- descriptive mark

- display

- fair use doctrine

- first sale rule

- infringement

- limited publication

- literary property

- literary work

- work made for hire

- copyright notice

- copyright owner