What is Copyright?

What is copyright?

United States federal Copyright law grants the creator of an original work [1] a number of exclusive rights. Copyright protection assumes three elements: the work is original, minimally creative, and  fixed in a tangible format. Examples of works that fall under copyright protection include books, articles,  sound recordings, images, art works, motion pictures, sound recordings, choreography, to name a few. The six exclusive rights [2] are (in abbreviated form):

• The right to reproduce the work
• The right to prepare derivative works
• The right to distribute copies of the work to the public
• The right to perform the work publicly
• The right to display the work publicly
• The right to perform the work by means of a digital audio transmission.

These exclusive rights are not absolute, and  they may be unbundled and transferred to someone else: for example, an author may sign over book printing and distribution rights to a publisher. The rights are also limited in duration [3] and are subject to a number of other exceptions. These exceptions, or limitations, permit use of a copyrighted work without the copyright holder's permission under certain conditions (see sections 107 - 122 [4]). A brief discussion of one of these limitations follows.