Name 10th Grade Reading Comprehension

Copyright Basics
Copyright is a form of intellectual property law which was
established to protect the creators of original artistic works.
Books, plays, musical compositions, films, computer
software, and architecture are all protected under
copyright law, whether published or not. According to the U.S. Copyright Office,
“your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a
tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or
device,” so the copyright essentially occurs at the moment of creation. Even if
you have not officially registered the copyright for your creative work, you can
legally use the copyright symbol (©), and your work is protected by U.S.
copyright law. Without going through the formal registration process with the
U.S. Copyright Office, though, it can be difficult to prove copyright infringement
in a court of law.

Once the U.S. Copyright Office receives your application, it can take up to eight
months before you receive your official legal paperwork identifying you as the
copyright owner for your work if you filed online. If you mail in paper forms, it can
take up to thirteen months.

A copyright does not protect your rights to a piece of work forever. If the work is
not registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, then the copyright lasts for 95 years
from the date of publication, or 120 years from the date of creation, whichever
comes first. If you do register the work, the copyright term is the length of your
own life, plus an additional 70 years. Although the copyright office tries to keep
“published, registered copyright deposits for the longest feasible period,” few
written works are kept for more than 5 years; works registered as visual arts are
kept for ten years. If a work is not published, however, it is usually retained for the
full copyright term.

If you make “substantial” changes to the content of a work, then you may be
required to reapply for a new copyright. For example, if you have written a
book, then adding or removing chapters, or adding new sections to existing
chapters are considered substantial changes.

Copyright does not apply to ideas. Section 102(b) of the Copyright Act clearly
states that, “In no case does copyright protection for an original work of
authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of

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