U.S. copyright law is codified in Title 17 of the United States Code. The Copyright Act of 1976 was the most significant recent revision of U.S. law, although other changes have been made since its passage. Under current law, copyright can apply to a wide range of creative, intellectual or artistic forms or “works”. Details vary by jurisdiction, but these may include poems, theses, fictional characters, plays and other literary works, films, choreography, musical compositions, sound recordings, paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, computer software, radio and television broadcasts, and industrial designs. Graphic designs and industrial designs may have separate or overlapping laws in some jurisdictions. [36] [37] Conceptually, fair use is a refinement of the fundamental balance between copyright infringement between copyright and civil interests. Terms of use have traditionally been negotiated on an individual basis between the copyright owner and the potential licensee. Therefore, a general CC license, which specifies the rights that the copyright owner is willing to waive, allows the public to use those works more freely. There are six general types of CC licenses available (although some of them are not properly free according to the above definitions and according to Creative Commons` own advice). These are based on provisions of the copyright owner, for example whether he is willing to allow modifications to the work, whether he authorizes the creation of derivative works and whether he is willing to authorize the commercial use of the work.
[77] In 2009[update], about 130 million people had received such licenses. [77] A copyright or aspects thereof (for example, reproduction alone, all but moral rights) may be transferred or transferred from one party to another. [73] For example, a musician who records an album often signs an agreement with a record company in which he or she agrees to transfer all copyright in the recordings in exchange for royalties and other consideration. The author (and the original copyright holder) benefits from or expects to do so from production and marketing skills that go far beyond those of the author. In the digital age of music, music can be copied and distributed over the Internet at minimal cost; However, the record industry tries to provide advertising and marketing for the artist and his work so that he can reach a much wider audience. A copyright holder is not required to transfer all rights in their entirety, although many publishers insist on this. Some of the rights may be transferred, or the copyright owner may grant another party a non-exclusive license to reproduce or distribute the work in a particular region or for a specified period of time. There is only one place where copyright claims can be registered in the United States: the Copyright Office. For more information on benefits and registration procedures, please see our Copyright Registration Circular.
Copyright gives authors of original material the exclusive right to continue to use and reproduce that material for a certain period of time, after which the copyrighted material becomes in the public domain. Copyright does not extend to the ideas and information themselves, but only to the form or manner in which they are expressed. [38] For example, copyright in a Mickey Mouse cartoon prevents others from making copies of the cartoon or creating derivative works based on Disney`s particular anthropomorphic mouse, but does not prohibit the creation of other works about anthropomorphic mice in general, as long as they are sufficiently different not to be considered Disney copies. [38] Also note that Mickey Mouse is not protected by copyright because the characters cannot be protected by copyright; On the contrary, Steamboat Willie is protected by copyright and Mickey Mouse as a character in this copyrighted work. The United States Copyright Clause, Constitution (1787) authorized copyright law: “To promote the advancement of science and the useful arts by guaranteeing authors and inventors for a limited period of time the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” That is, by guaranteeing them a period of time during which only they could benefit from their works, they would be empowered and encouraged to invest the time necessary to create them, which would be good for society as a whole. The right to profit from the work was the philosophical basis of many laws that extended the term of copyright to the life of the author and beyond to his heirs.