Copyright: What is Covered by Copyright

Using Other's Materials

Protecting Your Copyright

Is Copyright Automatic?

Currently, copyright is automatic when an original work is created in a fixed form in the United States. It lasts 70 years after the death of an author if created after 1978.

What is Covered?

Copyright law, in its earliest form from the 18th century, was intended to cover only books. Through time, other items were included for copyright protection:

Copyright protection falls under Title 17 of the U.S. Code and covers "original works of authorship."

So what makes a work original?

1. Fixed Medium - not the idea but the fixed expression or the manifestation of the idea
2. Originality
3. Minimal creativity

What is NOT Covered?

Facts and Ideas

• Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration
• Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents

Legislative or Administrative or Statues 

• Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and contains no original authorship (for example, standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources)
• Works federal government employees produced within the scope of their employment (17 U.S.C. 105)

Public Domain

• Works clearly and explicitly donated to the public domain
• Works for which the copyright has expired
• Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression (for example, choreographic works that have not been notated or recorded, or spontaneous  speeches or performances that have not been written or recorded)

"The public domain is generally defined as consisting of works that are either ineligible for copyright protection or with expired copyrights. No permission whatsoever is needed to copy or use public domain works. Public domain works and information represent some of the most critical information that faculty members and students rely upon. Public domain works can serve as the foundation for new creative works and can be quoted extensively. They can also be copied and distributed to classes or digitized and placed on course Web pages without permission or paying royalties."  UCCopyright

Common Types of Items in the Public Domain

As copyright expires, a work moves into the public domain as follows:

• Published in the United States before 1928
• Published in United States between 1928 and 1977 without a copyright notice

A work is subject to laws of the country of origin, any international laws, and the Berne Convention.  Availability in the public domain can be limited by international rules.

• Territoriality (outside a border) and 
• National treatment (non-discrimination of foreign authors) are the two rules that effect works when they originate in other countries.