Watch the Copyright Clearance Center's brief video about copyright in academia.
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of "original works of authorship," including artistic, dramatic, literary, musical, and other intellectual work. The 1976 Copyright Act gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to:
According to Title 17 of the U.S. Code § 102, the following is protected:
(b) In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.
So, who owns the copyright of a published work?
For more information about Copyright Ownership and Transfer, please refer to 17 U.S. Code Chapter 2.
Copyright protection currently lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years.
When a copyright expires, the work typically enters into "the public domain." Works created by employees of the United States federal government are not protected by copyright and are also included in the public domain. Works in the public domain can be reproduced, redistributed, or adapted.
| Legal Code | Relevance |
| 17 U.S. Code § 102 | Copyright protection |
| 17 U.S. Code § 107 | Fair Use exceptions |
| 17 U.S. Code § 108 | Exceptions for libraries and archives |
| 17 U.S. Code § 109 | First sale (the right to sell or loan copyrighted material) |
| 17 U.S. Code § 201-205 | Copyright ownership and transfer |
| 17 U.S. Code § 301-305 | Copyright duration |
