What is copyright? Where did it come from? Where does it go from here? The first copyright law, that is a law that governs who has the right to copy a work, can be traced back to a British law passed by parliament in 1709 commonly known as the "Statute of Anne."
In the United States, copyright law is as old as the country itself. In the Constitution of the United States, the following text is found in Article 1, Section 8:
[The Congress shall have Power]To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
Today there isn't just one copyright law. There are many that together form the copyright code. Examples of some of these laws include the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Berne Convention, and the WIPO Copyright Treaty.
The Copyright Office's website claims that a copyright is a protection granted to the creators of "original works of authorship"—these include literary, musical, dramatic, computer code, and other works of an intellectual nature. This copyright gives the owner the right to copy their work and distribute it as they wish. The copyright owner has the exclusive right to sell the work, lend the work, display it publicly, or lock it in a bomb shelter. :)
The length of a copyright term has changed often throughout the history of this country, but for an item created today, the length of a copyright is the life of the creator, plus 70 years after their death. However, if the work was created as a work for hire for a corporation, then the term is 95 years or 120 years after it was first created, whichever comes first.
In the past, copyright was something that had to be applied for, granted, and then renewed after so many years. Some items have passed into the public domain due to not being renewed in the past or for failure to have a copyright symbol properly affixed to the work. For works created today, this is no longer the case. All work is copyrighted as soon as it has been created, but many people opt to have their work officially registered in the Copyright Office in case they have to file litigation against someone for infringing upon their work.
The first copyright law in the United States protected items for 14 years, renewable once for a maximum of 28 years. However, during this time a work was not immediately said to be copyrighted as soon as it was created. The copyright had to be registered with the Copyright Office.
Over the years, additions have been made to the copyright laws to allow works created in other countries to have the same rights as those created locally. Each successive addition to the copyright code makes it known how copyrights on new forms of media are to be assessed. For example, the Copyright Act of 1909 created the compulsory license for mechanically reproducing pre-existing music. This was originally designed with player pianos in mind, that is, pianos that can automatically play a piece of music with a roll installed that when turned on would play the music on the roll.
There are also copyright treaties. These allow the United States to honor foreign copyrights, and also allows US copyrights protection in the countries that signed the treaties. For example, the Berne Convention and the WIPO Copyright Treaty are both international treaties that allows the United States and other countries to honor copyrights of other countries and the DMCA, among other things, makes it clear how digital works are to be treated.
It's easy to register a copyright in the United States. Your application must include three things. These three are:
1. The completed application form.
2. The filing fee.
3. A non-returnable deposit of the work being registered.
When you register your work, it becomes effective on the day the Copyright Office receives the three items, regardless as to how long the Office takes to process your application and mail your the certificate of registration.© ResearchCopyright.com
