What is copyright?
Answer
Copyright is a type of intellectual property. Copyright applies to any original work at the moment it is “fixed”. Copyright is meant to protect the author’s ability to decide how their original work is used, copied and shared.
Normally, the person who created the work is the owner of the copyright. There are exceptions, such as if you create work as part of your employment and then your employer could be the copyright owner.
The copyright owner has exclusive rights to their work. Only they can give permission for certain activities involving their copyright:
- copying
- issuing copies to the public (i.e. publishing and distributing physical copies of works)
- renting or lending
- publicly performing (i.e. showing, playing or performing copyright works in a public space)
- communicating to the public by means of electronic transmission (i.e. broadcast and online communication)
- adapting (e.g. making a film adaptation of a book)
if you want to do any of the above with a copyright work, you need to make sure you have a license, permission from the copyright owner, or that there is an exception to copyright law that allows it.
Please read more at our Copyright Guide: https://anglia.libguides.com/copyright