What Is a Copyright?

Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States
(title 17, 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 This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.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 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following:

• To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;
  
• To prepare derivative works based upon the work;
  
• To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
  
• To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
  
• 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; and
  
• In the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.
  

• literary works;
  
• musical works, including any accompanying words
  
• dramatic works, including any accompanying music
  
• pantomimes and choreographic works
  
• pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
  
• motion pictures and other audiovisual works
  
• sound recordings
  
• architectural works

Article Source: http://freelegalinformation.info

Published by: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office