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Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the
United States (title 17).
Title 17 is the 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available to both published and unpublished works.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 gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to
authorize
others to do the following with their written permission only:
-- 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 graphic art.
-- 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 United States
Government, Washington D.C.
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