WHAT IS
COPYRIGHT?
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the
United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of “original works of
authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain
other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and
unpublished works. Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the
owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the
following:
·
To reproduce
the
work in copies or phonorecords;
·
To prepare derivative works
based upon the work;
·
To distribute copies or phonorecords of
the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental,
lease, or lending;
·
To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary,
musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and
other audiovisual works;
·
To display the copyrighted work publicly,
in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes,
and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of
a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and
·
In the case of sound
recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital
audio transmission.