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Ignorance is no excuse when it comes
to Copyright Laws.
Avoid a Law Suit and do not steal!
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 literary,
dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This
protection is
available to both published and unpublished works. Section 106 of the
Copyright
Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do
and to authorize
others to do the following:
-- To reproduce the copyrighted work
in copies or phonorecords;
-- To prepare derivative works based
upon the copyrighted work;
-- To distribute copies or phonorecords
of the copyrighted work to the public by
sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
-- To perform the copyrighted work
publicly, in the case of literary, musical,
dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and
other
audiovisual works; and to display the copyrighted
work publicly, in the case of literary,
musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial,
graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion
picture or other audiovisual work.
It is illegal for anyone to violate
any of the rights provided by the Act to the owner of
copyright. These rights, however, are not unlimited in scope. Sections
107 through
119 of the Copyright Act establish limitations on these rights. In some
cases, these
limitations are specified exemptions from copyright liability. One major
limitation is
the doctrine of "fair use," which is given a statutory basis
in section 107 of the Act. In
other instances, the limitation takes the form of a "compulsory
license" under which
certain limited uses of copyrighted works are permitted upon payment
of specified
royalties and compliance with statutory conditions. For further information
about the
limitations of any of these rights, consult the Copyright Act or write
to the U.S. Government.
Washington D.C.
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