Copyright is a legal right that grants the creator of original work exclusive rights for its use and distribution. It automatically grants all rights reserved to creators (no one else can copy, distribute, perform, adapt or otherwise use the work in violation of those exclusive rights).
Unlike other forms of IP, such as patents and trademarks, copyright protection exists automatically from the moment material is created. It does not have to be explicitly declared to be in effect.
Copyright law needs to strike a delicate balance between protecting creative works and allowing the public to use them:
- Protection: a set of exclusive rights granted to authors to allow them to earn from their work and so incentivize them to produce new work
- Dissemination: limits to the scope of exclusive rights to enable the spread of knowledge and dissemination of the works created through the copyright incentive
Creative Commons licences operate within copyright law, but they utilise a some rights reserved approach.
They grant the public permission to use the works under certain standardised conditions for as long as the underlying copyright lasts or until one violates the licence terms.
The licences were designed to be a free, voluntary solution for creators who want to grant the public up-front permissions to use their works.
See the following links:
Authorship and ownership of copyright
Go to next Copyright Law
Go to previous Copying and creativity
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The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.
