Copyright
A copyright is a monopoly that gives the owner the right to prevent others from unauthorized use of an original work of authorship by duplication, preparation of derivative works, distribution or public performance.

The subject matter of copyright is original works of authorship, including literary and musical works, mask works for computer chips, graphic works, sound recordings and works of art. Computer programs do not have a separate category and are evaluated in part as literary works, an unnatural fit that sometimes leads to practical problems.

Copyright applies only to an author's original expression, not ideas, since ideas belong to the public and may not be monopolized. The idea-expression distinction explains why an original text on plane geometry may be copyrighted, though earlier copyrighted works presented identical ideas. Similarly, anyone can freely use data from a copyrighted book listing melting points of chemical compounds, since empirical data are considered ideas. Unauthorized photocopying of pages from the same book might be copyright infringement, however, because it appropriates the author's selection and organization of data and the layout of pages and headings — all of which might be original expression.

To be copyrighted, material must be original and fixed in a tangible medium of expression.

Unlike patented inventions, there is no requirement that a copyrighted work be novel in the sense that nothing identical previously existed. The criterion of originality is met if a work is the author's own, not copied from another source.

To learn more about Copyrights go to:

www.copyright.gov/about.html

Since Jan. 1, 1978, copyright exists in an original work of authorship as soon as it is fixed in a tangible medium of expression such as a manuscript, audio tape or computer file. Copyright registration and use of the copyright mark, ©, are used mainly as prerequisites to infringement proceedings to enforce copyright or recover damages for unauthorized use.

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