5 Copyright and you
Why do we have laws that restrict the copying and sharing of creative work? How do those laws operate in the context of the Internet, where nearly everything we do involves making a copy?
Copyright is an important area of intellectual property law, one that reaches into nearly every facet of our lives, whether we know it or not. Acts that are allowed by copyright in physical formats, such as lending a friend a physical book, are treated differently by copyright when performed in an online environment, such as sharing the same book on the internet. Because almost everything we do online involves making a copy, copyright is a regular feature in our lives.
Why Copyright Matters to You
Have you ever wondered who contributes high-quality media to Wikipedia that illustrates things like the eye of an Antarctic Krill? What might motivate people to make these contributions? Think back to a time when you invested significant effort into a creative project. What was your motivation for doing so? Did you know at the time that you were creating a work very likely protected by copyright? And that copyright that restricted most reuses by others without your permission? Did or would knowing that make a difference to you? If so, why?
You might not realize it, but copyright law is as integral to your daily life as local traffic laws. Copyright is the area of intellectual property law that determines how others may access and use the original works of authors (or creators, as we often call them) — written, visual, audio works (or their combinations), spanning the spectrum from novels and operas, corporate manuals, lectures and student essays, archives, podcasts, cat videos, to scribbles on a napkin, and more.
Although copyright laws vary from country to country, there are many commonalities among copyright laws globally. This is largely due to international treaties.
Copyright Fundamentals
There are some important fundamentals of which you need to be aware, regarding what is copyrightable, as well as who controls the rights and can grant permission to reuse a copyrighted work.
| Copyright Fundamental | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Copyright grants a set of exclusive rights to copyright holders | No one else can copy, distribute, publicly perform, adapt or otherwise use the work without permission of the copyright holder. |
| Copyright grants rights to literary and artistic works that are original. |
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| Copyright does not protect facts or ideas themselves, only the expression of those facts or ideas. |
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| Copyright is automatic the moment a work is created. |
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| Copyright protection lasts a long time. | More on this later, but for now, it’s enough to know that in the US, copyright lasts 70 years after the creator dies. |
| Copyright protection is balanced against other public interests. |
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Note: The combination of very long terms with automatic protection has created a massive amount of “orphan works”—copyrighted works for which the copyright holder is unknown or impossible to locate.
Copyright Holder’s Exclusive Rights
A Simple History of Copyright
The world’s first copyright law was enacted in 1710 in England: the Statute of Anne, “An act for the encouragement of learning, by vesting the copies of printed books in the authors or purchasers of such copies, during the times therein mentioned.” This law gave book publishers 14 years of legal protection from the copying of their books by others.
Since then, the scope of the exclusive rights granted under copyright has expanded. Today, copyright law extends far beyond books, to cover nearly any creative expression with even a fragment of originality.
Additionally, the duration of the exclusive rights has also expanded. Today, in many parts of the world, the minimum term of copyright protection granted to a work is the life of the creator plus at least 50 years post-mortem, or 50 years after publication if it’s a corporate or anonymous work.
—Credit: Balfour Smith, Canuckguy, Badseed, Martsniez, “Worldwide map of copyright term length,” CC BY 3.0.
And finally, since the Statute of Anne, copyright has become a matter of international law. The international community has created international treaties, which nearly all countries have joined. The result is that copyright laws have been harmonized to some degree around the world. Thanks to these harmonization efforts, the general operation of copyright laws is the same around the world; however, it’s worth noting that there are differences in the way copyright law is enacted and enforced due to national laws.
