What is a copyright?

A copyright is a legal action that protects your work from being used by someone else without your permission. Being an independent worker or freelancer, you usually have the right to use what you have created, unless you have legally given the right to someone else.

The work must be an original -- that is, genuinely and independently created by the person(s). It will not make a difference if the creation has similarities to existing pieces of work, or lacks quality, originality or any merit whatsoever. As long as the author or creator doesn’t copy from other source(s), and works on his own, his work is protected by copyright laws.

What does it protect?

A copyright protects the following forms of works:

• Poetry

• Movies, plays, films and videos

• Paintings, photographs, sculptures and architectural designs

• Sheet music

• Recorded music performances

• Novels

• Video games

• CD ROMs

• Software codes

The exceptions

The exceptions to the rule of copyright will apply when the following situations occur.

• If a work is created by an employee in the course of his or her employment, the employer owns the copyright.

• If the work is created by a self-employed person and he/she signs a written agreement stating that the work shall be "made for hire," the commissioning person or organization owns the copyright only if the work is

  • a part of a larger literary work, such as an article in a magazine or a poem etc;

  • part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, such as the screenplay of a movie;

  • a translation;

  • a supplementary work such as a preface, foreword, editorial note, bibliography, appendix or index – as in a book;

  • an instructional text;

  • a test;

  • answer material for a test; or

  • an atlas.

The rights of a copyright owner

The copyright law protects only original works created expressed in a physical form. This means an idea cannot be copyrighted; the physical evidence of it – the expression – can be protected. Furthermore, the law provides additional rights to the owners including:

• The right to reproduce – make copies of the protected work

• The right to sell and distribute copies of the work to the public at large

• The right to create adaptations of the protected material

• The right to perform and display the protected work such as a play or a movie

These rights allow the copyright owner to be flexible in deciding what commercial gains to realise and whenever he/she finds appropriate or may sell or license the rights to any one else. Therefore, a writer may grant the right to print his book to a specific publisher. If a copyright owner transfers all his rights to someone else, unconditionally, it is termed as an “assignment”. Partial transfer of rights is called a “license”.

Copyrighting complications

Difficulties arise with a software copyright. Registration often makes your source code available to the public. To protect your right down to minor details, you may have to patent portions of the source code instead of copyrighting them.

When is an infringement not a crime?

A copyright may not be violated every time something is copied. Here are some examples that may render the use of protected material as “fair use”.

• Using an excerpt or quote from a protected material in a review or criticism to illustrate or comment. This includes use of excerpts for news reporting or producing a research report.

• Reproducing selected portions of a larger written works for non-profit or educational purposes by teachers or for classroom use or for the benefit of the public at large.

• Producing a parody of the original, usually by imitating it in a comic sense.

For example, you may download any piece of information you like but cannot publish it word for word, although you may believe that you have paid for its usage. You may have paid to be online but the right of usage remains with the copyright owner; you may however use it for such purposes as mentioned above or not at all.