Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Copyright |
CopyrightAdjective1. (of literary or musical or dramatic or artistic work) protected by copyright; "permission to publish copyright material". Noun1. A document granting exclusive right to publish and sell literary or musical or artistic work. Verb1. Secure a copyright on a written work; "did you copyright your manuscript?". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "copyright" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | Copyright |
Archeological | Legal recognition of special intellectual property rights, distinct from the right of possession, that a creator may have for their work. Copyright exists for original works in tangible media and covers the rights to reproduce, adapt, distribute, perform, or display the work. (references) |
Literature | Copyright The law of copyright was made in 1814 (54 Geo. III. c. 156). It enacted that an author should possess a right in his work for life, or for twenty-eight years. If he died before the expiration of twenty-eight years, the residue of the right passed to the heirs. By Talfourd's or Lord Mahon's Act (1842) the time was extended to forty-two years, and at least seven years after decease: for example, if the time unexpired exceeds seven years, the heirs enjoy the residue; if less, the heirs claim seven years. In the first case eleven copies of the work had to be given for public use; by Lord Mahon's Act the number was reduced to five: i.e. one to each of the following institutions, viz. the British Museum, the Bodleian (Oxford), the University library (Cambridge), the Advocates' library (Edinburgh), and the library of Trinity College (Dublin). The six omitted are Sion College, the Scotch Universities of Glasgow, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews, and King's Inn (Dublin). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A copyright provides its holder several exclusive rights to control the reproduction, import and export of a work of authorship (e.g., literary work, movie, music, painting, software, mask work, etc.) Copyrights are often held by a work's author, although, for reasons discussed below, they may often be held by a corporation. Copyright stands in contrast to other forms of intellectual property, such as patents, which grant a monopoly right to the use of an invention, because it is not a monopoly right to do something, merely a right to prevent others doing it.
Copyright covers the expression of the idea, not the idea itself (unlike a patent). So for example the idea of writing an article about copyright has been thought of before (in every legal textbook for 100 years) but that does not stop us writing this article. What we cannot do is copy a chunk of text out of one of those text books.
A copyright holder typically has exclusive rights:
Note that copyright law does not restrict resale of copies of works, provided those copies were made by or with the permission of the copyright holder. Thus it is legal, for example, to resell a book or a CD that you have purchased, provided you do not keep a copy for yourself. In the US this is known as the First Sale Doctrine, and was established in the US court system to clarify the legality of reselling books in used book stores. Elsewhere it has other names; in the United Kingdom it is known as "Exhaustion of rights" and is a principle which applies to other Intellectual property rights.
Subject to moral rights, copyright also does not prohibit the owner of a physical copy of a work from modifying, defacing, destroying, etc. the work, so long as this does not involve duplication.
Copyright also does not prohibit all forms of copying. The fair use and fair dealing doctrines allows limited copying of portions of a copyrighted work in, for example, criticism, satire, or educational settings. Copyrighted works may also be available for copying through a statutory compulsory license scheme or via a copyright collective or performing rights organisation.
Typically, works must meet minimal standards of originality in order to qualify for a copyright, and the copyright expires after a set period of time.
Different countries impose different tests, although generally the test is low; in the United Kingdom there has to be some 'skill, originality and work' which has gone into it. However, even fairly trivial amounts of these qualities are sufficient.
In the United States, the original owner of the copyright may be the employer of the actual author rather than the author himself if the work is a "work for hire". Again, this principle is widespread; in English Law the Copyright Designs and Patents 1988 provides that where a work in which copyright subsists is made by an employee in the course of his employement the copyright is automatically assigned to the employer.
Copyrights are generally enforced by the owner in a civil law court,
but there are also criminal infringement statutes. Criminal sanctions are generally aimed at serious counterfeiting activity.
In the United States, font design is not copyrightable, but it is patentable if novel enough. Stone and Lucida are the only two patented typefaces, and this may not hold up in court.
Europe used to have the same "can't copyright typefaces" laws as the United States, but Germany (in 1981) and the UK (in 1989) have passed laws making typeface designs copyrightable. The UK law is even retroactive (!), so designs produced before 1989 are also copyrighted, if the copyrights wouldn't have already expired (the German one is not retroactive).
Many European countries (and other countries as a result of the GATT Trade Related Intellectual Property or "TRIPs" agreement) further provide for moral rights in addition to copyrights possessed by authors, such as the right to have
their work acknowledged and not be disparaged. (Famously, the Monty Python team managed to use these rights to stop the Monty Python TV programme being shown in the US because the US TV station was putting so many adverts into the program the Monty Python team claimed that it was being ruined as a serious comedy programme.)
While copyright is normally assigned or licensed to the publisher, authors
generally retain their moral rights (although in some jurisdictions these can be excluded under contract). In most of Europe it is not possible for authors to assign their moral rights (unlike the copyright itself, which is regarded as an item of property which can be sold, licenced, lent, mortgaged or given like any other property). They can agree not to enforce them (and such terms are very common in contracts in Europe). There may also be a requirement for the author to 'assert' these moral rights before they can be enforced. In many books, for example, this is done on a page near the beginning, in amongst the British Library/Library of Congress data.
Some European countries also provide for artist resale rights, which mean
that artists are entitled to a portion of the appreciation of the value of
their work each time it is sold. These rights are granted on the background of a different tradition, which granted droits d'auteur rather than copyright also granting all creators various moral rights beyond the economic rights recognized in most copyright jurisdictions. (see also parallel importation.)
Main article: History of copyright
While governments had previously granted monopoly rights to publishers
to sell printed works, the modern concept of copyright originated in 1710
with the British Statute of Anne.
This statute first recognized that authors, rather than publishers, should be
the primary beneficiary of such laws, and it included protections for consumers
of printed work ensuring that publishers could not control their use after
sale.
It also limited the duration of such exclusive rights to 28 years, after
which all works would pass into the public domain.
The Berne Convention of 1886 first established the recognition of
copyrights between sovereign nations.
(Copyrights were also provided by the
Universal Copyright Convention of 1952, but that convention is today largely of historical interest.)
Under the Berne convention, copyright is granted automatically to creative
works; an author does not have to "register" or "apply for" a copyright.
As soon as the work is "fixed", that is, written or recorded on some
physical medium, its author is automatically granted all exclusive rights
to the work and any derivative works unless and until the author explicitly
disclaims them, or until the copyright expires.
Some think the current copyright system doesn't work in the Information society. The general problem is that the current (international) copyright system undermines its own goal (Boyle 1996, 142). The concept of public domain, needed as a pool for future creators, is far too often forgotten or repressed, due to the strong position of the concept of the romantic author, and selective blindness for the possibilities concerning copyright that the Internet and computers offer. Except for unlimited copying, it offers, as said, also new ways for marketing and, more important, the possibilities of code; much depends of course of how code is used (code can be used and is in most of the cases also used in a positive way), but in various cases it threatens not only the public domain in a serious way, but is also ignored when talking about "restoring the balance" which is said to be gravely disturbed by the so called unlimited copying possibilities the Internet creates. [1]
Others believe that irrespective of contemporary advances in technology, copyright has been and remains the fundamental way by which authors, sculptors, artists, musicians and others can fund the creation of new works. This view espouses that copyright is the only reason some valuable books and art would be created.
In the US in 2003, controversial changes implemented by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act extending the length of copyright under U.S. copyright law by 20 years were constitutionally challenged unsuccessfully in the Supreme Court. The Court, in the case called Eldred v. Ashcroft, held inter alia that in placing existing and future copyrights in parity in the CTEA, Congress acted within its authority and did not transgress constitutional limitations.
Copyright law varies from country to country.
For information on specific national copyright laws, see:
How copyrights are obtained/enforced
Copyrighting fonts
Rights beyond copyright
History of copyright
Critique of copyright
Further information on copyright inside Wikipedia
International treaties concerning copyright
See also:
Further reading outside Wikipedia
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Copyright."
Synonyms: CopyrightSynonyms: copyrighted (adj), right of first publication (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Property | Patent, copyright; chose in action; credit; debt;. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Someone holds the copyright to Happy Birthday? (Sports Night; writing credit: Tom Brady; Kevin Falls) | |
Movie/TV Titles | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References | |||
Books |
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Periodicals | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
![]() | Halftone reproduction of an artwork, copyright 1906 by G.S. Richardson. Credit: NAVY. | ![]() | At anchor, 1898. The original photograph was copyright 1898 by J.F. Jarvis, and published on a stereograph card. Credit: NAVY. |
![]() | Anchored in U.S. waters circa summer 1898, showing her forward 6-pdr. gun and bow decorations. Original photograph was printed on a stereograph card, copyright 1899 by Strohmeyer & Wyman, New York. Credit: NAVY. | ![]() | View looking aft from her forecastle, showing visitors atop her forward 13-inch gun turret, 1898. The original photograph was copyright 1898 by B.L. Singley and published on a stereograph card by the Keystone View Company. Credit: NAVY. |
![]() | Taking on coal from a lighter, 1898. The original photograph was copyright 1898 by B.L. Singley, and published on a stereograph card by the Keystone View Company. Credit: NAVY. | ![]() | The Lord Bishop of Winchester / from life, registered photograph copyright Julia Margaret Cameron, Freshwater. Credit: Library of Congress. |
![]() | Form for J.C.H. Grabill photos, with instructions on what to wear, how to order, etc.; with handwritten note from Grabill to the Copyright Office concerning photos he deposited. Credit: Library of Congress. | ![]() | Villa of Brule the great hostile Indian camp on River Brule near Pine Ridge, S.D / / photo. and copyright by Grabill , Deadwood, S.D. Credit: Library of Congress. |
![]() | Copyright and photo credits for Horydczak negatives. Text: proof Horydczak photo. Credit: Library of Congress. | ![]() | Maude Fealy / from copyright p. Credit: Library of Congress; photo by Burr McIntosh, N.Y.. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | This book is protected by copyright. (references) | |
Business | The author of the design, the architect, keeps his personal copyright for his lifetime. (references) | |
In Argentina, software products have to be registered at the National Register of Copyright. (references) | ||
Because the contents are thus not copied into end-users' PC, it ameliorated copyright problems. (references) | ||
Civil Liberties | Jordan | Persons accused of violating the Press and Publications Law are tried in a special court for press and copyright cases. (references) |
Jordan | In addition all violators of the new provisions automatically are subject to trial before the State Security Court rather than the special press and copyright court. (references) | |
Botswana | The law provides for the issuance of broadcast licenses to private companies and provides copyright protection of broadcast material; it also mandates the establishment of a National Broadcast Board, which grants broadcast licenses. (references) | |
Economic History | Saudi Arabia | Saudi Arabia has a copyright law. (references) |
Senegal | Senegal is a signatory to the Bern Copyright Convention. (references) | |
Finland | Finland has joined the most important copyright agreements. (references) | |
Political Economy | NIGERIA | Most copyright cases have been settled out of court. (references) |
ROMANIA | Modern patent, trademark, and copyright laws are in place. (references) | |
THE BAHAMAS | It is also a member of the Universal Copyright Convention. (references) | |
Trade | Saudi Arabia | The Saudi Government has acceded to the Universal Copyright Convention; implementation began on July 13, 1994. (references) |
Uzbekistan | In 1996 Uzbekistan undertook a comprehensive revision of its copyright law, but significant deficiencies remain in Uzbekistan's IPR regime. (references) | |
Uzbekistan | In its December 2000 session, the Uzbek parliament made some changes to the copyright law, which may alleviate some of these problems, and also added trademark protections. (references) | |
Travel | Korea | Americans visiting Korea should be aware of possible trademark and copyright violations when purchasing articles in Korea. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Thomas Jefferson | 1801-1809 | Because of copyright reasons we cannot publish all texts that are available on the internet in our own format, which would allow us to provide links to relevant background material for the letters. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Copyright" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.76% of the time. "Copyright" is used about 889 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.76% | 878 | 8,097 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.12% | 10 | 111,207 |
| Noun (common) | 0.11% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 889 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "copyright": breach of copyright ♦ Copyright (C) 1993/2001 Oliver Heidelbach ♦ copyright infringement ♦ copyright legislation ♦ copyright reserved ♦ copyright writer ♦ infringement of copyright ♦ International copyright ♦ out of copyright ♦ user interface copyright. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "copyright": copyright-cleared, copyright-protected, copyright-related. | |
Ending with "copyright": anti-copyright, non-copyright, rbg-copyright. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "copyright"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Afrikaans | kopiereg. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | e drejtë e autorit. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | حق النشر والتأليف, حق النشر. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | авторско право. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 版权, 版權 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | copyright, autorské právo. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | ophavsret. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | kopijrecht, copyright, auteursrecht. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | kopirajto, aŭtora rajto. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | حق چاپ(انحصاری), حق طبع ونشر. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | tekijänoikeus. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | droit d'auteur. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frisian | skriuwersrjocht, auteursrjocht. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Verlagsrecht (right of publishing), Urheberrecht, Eigentumsrecht (ownership, proprietary right, proprietorship, right of ownership, title), copyright. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | κόπιράιτ, συγγραφικό δικαίωμα (authorship), πνευματική ιδιοκτησία (literary property), δικαιώματα αναπαραγωγής, δικαιώματα αναδημοσίευσης, δικαίωμα πνευματικής ιδιοκτησίας, δικαίωμα αντιγραφήσ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | זכות יוצרים, זכות "מחבר. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | copyright, szerzõi jog. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | hak cipta. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | diritto d'autore (royalty). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | "版 , 著作権 , 版権 , コバルト爆弾 (acopy, blurb on a book jacket, cobalt bomb, cobra, cobra twist, coffin, Copt, copywriter). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ぞうは" (rebellion), コ"ーライト , は"け" (stub), ちょさくけ". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 작권. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | coip-chiart. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | opyrightcay copyright, copirraite, direitos de autor (royalty), direitos autorais (royalties), direitodeeditor, direito de reprodução. (various references) cu drepturi de autor rezervate, drepturi de autor (royalty), asigura drepturile de autor. (various references) авторскоеправо, авторское право (copy-right, literary property, proprietary processes), авторское. (various references) zaštititi autorskim pravom, zaštita autorskog prava, autorsko pravo (authorship). (various references) copyright, propiedad literaria (literary property), propiedad artística, privilegio (charter, concession, patent, privelege, privilege, right), derechos de autor (author's royalties, royalties, royalty), derecho de reproducción, derecho de autor. (various references) upphovsrätt, litterär äganderätt (literary property). (various references) telif hakkını saklı tutmak, telif hakkı saklı olan, telif hakkı ile korunan, telif hakkı ile korumak, telif hakkı (royalty, stage rights). (various references) авторське право. (various references) quyền tác giả tác giả giữ bản quyền, do tác giả giữ bản quyền; được đảm bảo quyền tác giả, bản quyền. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "copyright": copyrightable, copyrighted, copyrighting, copyrights. (additional references) | |
Words containing "copyright": uncopyrightable. (additional references) | |
| |
"Copyright" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: copright, copyrite, copywright. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "copyright" (pronounced kÄ"pērī't) |
| 3 | -r ī' t | birthright, downright, fluorite, meteorite, playwright, shipwright, underwrite, Wainwright, wheelwright. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-g-h-i-o-p-r-t-y" | |
-2 letters: trophic. | |
-3 letters: chirpy, crypto, gothic, orphic, photic, pitchy, righto, righty, thoric, torchy, trophy, tropic. | |
-4 letters: chiro, chirp, choir, corgi, crypt, girth, griot, gript, gripy, grith, ichor, itchy, ochry, optic, orgic, picot, pirog, pitch, pithy, porch, porgy, pricy, pyric, right, rotch, thorp, thrip, tophi, topic, torch, toric, trigo, typic, yirth, yogic. | |
-5 letters: chip, chit, chop. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-g-h-i-o-p-r-t-y" | |
+1 letter: copyrights. | |
+2 letters: copyrighted, hygrophytic, hypogastric, pictography, typographic. | |
+3 letters: copyrighting. | |
+4 letters: bacteriophagy, copyrightable, cryptographic, typographical. | |
+5 letters: cinematography, cryptographies, dermatoglyphic, hygroscopicity. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Quotations: Speeches 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.