Understanding copyright basics
What is copyright?
Copyright is a legal form of protection granted to the creators of "original works of authorship." These works can be expressed in various forms, including words, numbers, musical notes, sounds, images, or any other graphic or symbolic media.
Copyright law grants the author, editor, compiler, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor the exclusive legal rights to publish, produce, sell, or distribute copies of a literary, musical, dramatic, artistic, or other work, subject to certain limitations such as fair use and first sale.
Copyright law also governs the right to create derivative works, reproduce a work or portions of it, and display or perform a work in public. Copyright protection extends to both published and unpublished works.
Can I transfer the copyright of my work?
There are two common scenarios, transfer the copyright to the publisher and entry into the public domain.
Transfer of copyright to the publisher: After a manuscript is accepted for publication, authors typically transfer the copyright of their work to the publisher. This allows publishers to:
- distribute the article,
- monitor and control republication of the article, partially or as a whole,
- handle the paperwork involved in copyright registration and administration.
Publishers in turn represent the authors' interests and permit them to freely reuse their own article in several ways.
Public Domain Copyright for Employees of the U.S. Government
If the primary authors of a work are employees of the U.S. government and its departments and the work was produced within the scope of their employment, the work is considered in the public domain and not copyrighted by the authors or the publisher.
Should I license copyright?
Yes, by licensing copyright, you give the publisher permission to use the article in ways that would otherwise infringe copyright. Because licenses can apply to all or any subset of the rights available to the copyright owner, agreements involving a license will specify which rights are included, often mentioning particular formats or geographic regions for publication, as well as the period of time for which the license will remain in effect.
Licenses can be exclusive or non-exclusive:
- Exclusive licenses must be explicitly granted in writing. Under an exclusive license, the licensee is the only party that can exploit the rights granted.
- Non-exclusive licenses allow the licensee to use the rights in question, but the copyright owner can continue to also exercise those rights and/or to license them to other parties.
What is Creative Commons licenses?
Creative Commons CC-BY licenses give everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law.