Copyright protections are important intellectual property protections that authors and others should be familiar with. Understanding what a copyright is and what it protects is helpful for anyone seeking to protect their works to understand.

What is a copyright and what are the rights of a copyright holder?

Copyrights are a type of intellectual property protection that protects original works of authorship once they are fixed in a tangible form of expression. Different works that copyright protections may apply to can include paintings, photographs, illustrations, musical compositions, sound recordings, computer programs, books, poems, blog posts, movies, architectural works, plays and other works of original authorship.

A copyright provides the author with certain exclusive rights. Exclusive rights of the author include the right to reproduce copies or phonorecords of the work; prepare derivative works based upon the original work; distribute copies or phonorecords of the work by sale to the public or other transfer of ownership by rental, lease or lending; perform the work publicly if it is a literary, musical, dramatic or choreographic work, motion picture or other audiovisual work or pantomime; display the work publicly if it is a literary, musical, dramatic choreographic, pictorial, graphic or sculptural work or pantomime; display individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; or perform the work publicly by means of digital audio transmission if the work is a sound recording.

It is important for authors to be able to protect their works and pursuing copyright registration is one way of doing that. Registering a copyright is an important part of protecting the author’s rights which is why they should be familiar with the option and how to do so.