Welcome to the Copyright Website
The ultimate copyright portal for real world, practical copyright information. Launched on May Day 1995, the Copyright Website strives to lubricate the machinations of information delivery. As spice is to Dune, information is to the web; the spice must flow.
- Specialized information for webmasters, musicians, moviemakers, screenwriters, programmers and photographers.
- General copyright information for educators, students, web-surfers, re-mixers, mash-uppers and confused citizens.
Movies
See the notorious fights over copyright on the big screen.
Music
Hear the samplers, appropriators, copiers, alleged pillagers of copyright and fair users.
Web
A look at some of the bleeding edge issues involving software and the Internet.
Info
Get up to speed on the basics of Copyright Law.
What is Copyright?
Here in the information age, virtually all intellectual creations can be protected by some form of intellectual property law. Intellectual property divides the universe intellectual creations into three domains:
- Copyrights
- Trademarks
- Patents
In a nutshell, copright protects expression, trademark protects names, and patents protect ideas.
Copyright protects creative expression that has been reduced to tangible form, such as a book, piece of recorded music, computer program, screenplay, painting, photograph, or motion picture.
Trademark protects brand names, literally marking items in trade. The idea behind trademark is to protect the consumer by giving them some confidence that items branded with a certain mark are authentic and come from where they purport to come from.
Patent protects innovation. While you can't copyright an idea, you can patent one.
The Copyright Website seeks to develop useful tools for people navigating copyright issues, such as our Fair Use Visualizer. Some of these tools allow you to save and distribute data; however, in order to access the data, you will need to open a free account.