copyright

     

Copyright is a legal concept, enacte by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Generally, it is "the right to copy", but also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it, and other, related rights. It is an intellectual property form (like the patent, the trademark, and the trade secret) applicable to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete.

Trivia about copyright

  • In 1790 the USA's 1st law governing this protection gave it a term of 14 years; today it can extend well over a century
  • Library photocopying that's "systematic" infringes on this legal protection
  • The legal control of a creative artist's original work
  • In 2009 a housewife who practiced file-sharing was found to have infringed these on 24 songs & hit with a $2 mil. judgment
  • The Bern Convention first adopted in 1886 is an international treaty concerned with this law