Intellectual Property and Copyright Law

Staff Writer, Jul 19, 2005

The US Copyright Act protects the literary of any scientific and artistic works whether it is published or unpublished and grants the author of the piece the exclusive

What is copyright?

The U.S. Copyright Act protects the literary of any scientific and artistic works whether it is published or unpublished and grants the author of the piece the exclusive rights to the writing.

Basically, it is that easy: A writer creates a short story, prints it out on paper, signs his name with the © symbol and puts the piece in an envelope which is then addressed to himself. Once the envelope gets back to his house, it remains sealed and the stamp then serves as proof for the date of creation. The following day the creator then registers the copyrighted piece with the U.S. Copyright Office and then, he has grounds to sue for monetary damages in case of a violation. However, in case a violation of the copyright should be discovered before the piece reaches the U.S. Copyright Office, the dated envelope will still grant him the right to assert himself as the true author.

What can be copyrighted?

In order to shed light on the scope of how far copyright law can reach, consider the following examples of possible copyrighted pieces.

• Books
• Essays
• Plays
• Songs
• Dance moves
• Photgraphes
• HTML codings
• Graphics
• Architectural designs
• Motion pictures
• Sound recordings

Copyright laws grant the creator the exclusive rights to distribute, perform, display, sell, reproduce and modify his/her work and prohibits others to use it without the mention of the creator’s name.

Copyright infringement

Just like any other product of value, intellectual property is desired and sought by others. If a somebody violates the rights of the copyright owner/author can expect consequences. If it has been determined that a person is guilty of copyright infringement, the court may order a confiscation of the items to prevent further misuse and monetary damages which will be paid to the true owner in order to compensate for loss of income or the damages suffered from the illegal use of his/her work.

Updated: HB