Copyright Law: Protection of Originals

Author: Nick Jackson

Copyright simply means the right to copy which means the creator of the work has the right to reproduce or copy the work for a period of time. It is the legal rights of the author or the creator over their work that prevents the unauthorized copying of the work. It prevents the copying of the original work however the ideas of the work are not protected by it. The law works to protect both the published and unpublished work.

In the United States, the Copyright Law is the federal law that is based on the Copyright Act of 1976 and it came into effect on 1st January 1978.

Requirements for Copyright:

There are some basic criteria that any work needs to qualify to have copyright, some of the common criteria are:

  1. Fixation: The work must be stored on a tangible medium of expression, if it is not stored then it can't have copyright. The fixation of the work helps for reproducing, perceiving, and copying the work. The tangible medium can be paper, word processors, recorders, etc.

For example, a song can have copyright protection only when it is fixed on paper or a sound recorder, but if the song is sung live or in public then it cannot have copyright protection. In the same way, the author can write the story on paper or store it in the word processor.

  1. Expression: Both the fixation and expression are the requirements that go hand in hand, as the work to have copyright must be expressed, and fixation is the medium for expressing the work.

Copyright is applied to the expression of the idea but not the idea itself. So, for an idea, it must be expressed and fixed.

  1. Originality: The work should be original, if it is copied then it cannot have copyright protection. Though copyright is a minimal requirement, it is a constitutional requirement.

Works that can have copyright protection:

Deciding for what work comes under copyright protection is done based on originality, expression, and fixation. That is all the work should have all these criteria. The categories of work that can have copyright protection are:

  • Literary works: poems, stories, manuals, articles, guides, brochures, lyrics, computer software

  • Dramatic works: plays, skits, choreographic works

  • Musical works: songs, poem

  • Artistic works: paintings, sketchings, lithographs, photography, sculptures, graphics, movies, shows

What works do not have copyright protection?

Certain works cannot have copyright protection like:

  • Facts, Universal truths, discoveries, principles

  • Process, method, operations

  • Ideas that are not expressed

  • Works of the federal government

What is the durability of copyright protection?

In the U.S the works that are created on or after 1st January 1978 have the durability as:

  • An author’s work is protected for his whole life and 70 years after his death

  • The Joint author’s work is protected for 95 years from the first publication or for 120 years from the day it was created, or the lesser year.

  • The anonymous work and the pseudonymous works have 95 years of protection from the day of publication or 120 years from the day it was created, which among the two is less.

Copyright Infringement:

Copyright infringement is a civil matter as it involves the illegal use of works that are protected by copyright. When the plaintiff brings the lawsuit for copyright infringement then he should have copyright ownership. Usually, these lawsuits are resolved by negotiation. Essential elements for proving copyright infringement are:

  • The plaintiff must have the copyright ownership

  • The plaintiff must be able to prove that the defendant infringed the copyright law and copied the work willingly.

  • It must be proved that the defendant wanted to make money or have some profit by copying the work.

So, the Copyright Law protects the original work from being copied, thereby giving the right to the owner to reproduce, perceive or produce copies of the work. For a work to have protection under the law it must be fixed, expressed, original. Any unlawful use of the copyrighted work can be treated as copyright infringement. However, with the permission of the copyright owner, the work can be used for research, teaching, commentary, or criticizing. The copyright law protects only the expression of an idea, not the idea itself.