Since copyright laws sometimes seem a little confusing, I thought I’d post some information about it. While I don’t have a law degree and am not an attorney, during my University years, for the MS in Writing/Publishing, I took a course called “Law for Artists,” and thus, my bookshelf holds several books on copyright law. And I’ve taken 2 courses in Business Law and a couple of CLE seminars.
So, what is copyright?
Copyright laws are the government’s way of encouraging artists to produce, both by ensuring that artists can fairly profit by their works but also so that their works may, at some point in the future, inspire others to create works that are derived from those original works. If that reads like straight “goop” to you, well…keep reading. It does get better.
On the technical — read dry — side: The US Constitution includes a copyright clause ( Article I, Section 8 ) stating that “The Congress shall … promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts, by securing for limited times to Authors…the exclusive Right to their…writings.”
Basically that says that Copyright provides the artist with the right to control how their work is used.
The copyright law of 1976 provides authors with these rights:
1) Reproduction–the right to make copies of a protected work;
2) Distribution–the right to sell or distribute copies to the public;
3) Right to create adaptations–the right to create new works based on the protected work; and
4) Performance and Display rights–the right to perform or display a work in public.
Thus, a copyright may be considered property, like anything else.
When does copyright begin?
Copyright is in place the moment you put pen to paper–that is, when something is fixed in a tangible form.
What can and cannot be copyrighted?
Some things that cannot generally be copyrighted: Titles, names*, ideas**, facts. For the latter two, this is true because it would interfere with intellectual and artistic progress.
(*There are exceptions, as when one author cannot use the characters of another author unless permission has been granted. Otherwise, trademark protection can protect certain names, titles and short phrases.)
(* *There are exceptions, such as with a formal contract for the purpose of disclosing ideas, or with a fictional work’s plot–an author’s selection and arrangement of ideas is protected to the extent that the work is original–the sequence of events, scenes, situations, but also plot, characters and theme.)
However, works like histories, how-to books, and news stories receive less protection.
And for how long?
There are several dates involved here, but mostly just go by the year that the work was created. For most of you, it will be this first one, for the years after 1977.
Works created after 1977: for the life of the author, plus an additional 70 years.
Works created during 1923-1963: 95 years from the date of publication, if a renewal was filed.
Works created during 1964-1977: 95 years regardless of whether a renewal was filed.
Exception: A copyright in works created, but not published before 1978: until 70 years after the author dies.
If anyone has anything to add, please feel free to comment or post a question (not being an attorney, I will give you the best answer I can). I haven’t covered everything here, and welcome any constructive input that will help authors understand their rights more clearly.
One of my reference books, from the “Law for Artists” class, is Nolo’s The Copyright Handbook: How to Protect & Use Written Works. By Attorney Stephen Fishman.
Tags: Copyright, Laws, publishing, Trademark, Writing
Copyright protection is fascinating. To protect my copyright, I am only posting published poems on my website–and no it hasn’t debuted yet . I also heard that it’s a good idea to mail a copy of your work to yourself upon completion of your project to protect yourself against copyright infringement.
But what concerns me the most is entering writing contests. There’s so many pros and cons for taking the plunge. Unfortunately, I’ve heard some cons where entries have been plagarized and the entrant either ignored it or changed her work because no one would believe that it was initially hers to begin with, especially if she’s unpublished. What is a writer to do?
Interesting post, Janice.
One of the Genre-istas took a class through the RWA Pro Loop and she shared that copy-writing work was important – even blog posts! So several of us at Romancing The Genres have started doing that.
Hi Vonnie, Thanks for dropping by. And sorry for not responding to your questions sooner. I’ve had some deadlines, etc.
Mailing a copy of your work to yourself is one way to help secure copyright. And it does assign a date to your work through the post office date stamp. However, it doesn’t cost that much to apply for copyright through the Copyright Office, though if you have a number of pieces, like poems, it could add up. Their website is: http://www.loc.gov/copyright
Copyright infringement through contests isn’t prevalent, so I wouldn’t worry too much about this. However, I would suggest only participating in contests that have a good reputation. While this doesn’t absolutely insure that this can’t happen, the benefits of the contests to an author–in feedback, exposure, etc–far outweigh the small possibility that the work could be plagarized. Having the manuscript completed or nearly completed, before participating, might be a consideration, since you’ll be closer to publishing the work.