Copyright is a complex and confusing area of the law these days. But you should know the following about copyright:

1. Everything that is produced is automatically copyrighted. The U.S. Copyright Office puts it this way: "Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a work is 'created' when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the first time. 'Copies' are material objects from which a work can be read or visually perceived either directly or with the aid of a machine or device." Thus, a book, Website, sound recording, or photograph are all examples of works that are automatically protected by copyright immediately upon their creation. The U.S. Copyright Office's website at
   http://www.copyright.gov/ gives in-depth information.


2. There is no need to register for copyright or to put any words or symbol on an item: it is copyrighted merely by existing. The owner can, of course, register for copyright, as well as putting a notice on the work such as:
    

   Copyright 2009 Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary All Rights Reserved

   
   
3. The right to copy (i.e., to control intellectual property) is protected for many years. The U.S. Copyright Office tells us:
   
   "A work that is created (fixed in tangible form for the first time) on or after January 1, 1978, is automatically protected from the moment of its creation and is ordinarily given a term enduring for the author's life plus an additional 70 years after the author's death. In the case of 'a joint work prepared by two or more authors who did not work for hire,' the term lasts for 70 years after the last surviving author's death.
   For works made for hire, and for anonymous and pseudonymous works (unless the author's identity is revealed in Copyright Office records), the duration of copyright will be 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter." A helpful chart can be found at:
   http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm 


4. Does that mean I cannot use a copyrighted work? No. Here is what the Copyright Website
   http://www.benedict.com/  has to say:
   
   "The 'fair use' provision of the law says use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."

Public Domain

Also, some work is in what's called the public domain. Works in the public domain include works with the following characteristics:

• Originally Non-copyrightable such as ideas, facts, titles, names, short phrases and blank forms


• Lost Copyright such as all works published before January 1, 1978 that did not contain a valid copyright notice may be considered to be in the public domain.


• Expired Copyright for which the statutory copyright period has expired.


• Government Documents are not copyrighted, and therefore are considered to be in the Public Domain. Consequently, if you obtain a government document from the net, such as a law, statute, agency circular, federal report, or any other document published or generated by the federal government, you are free to copy or distribute the document.


• Works Granted to the Public Domain if the copyright owner grants the work to the public domain.