This means that the owner has the sole and exclusive right to publicly distribute copies of the work by sale, rental, or lease and to publicly perform or display the work, such as selling copies of a novel or publicly playing a musical recording at a restaurant.įor instance, the exclusive right to reproduce a work prevents a fan that purchased an artist’s CD from creating and distribution copies of it to others. The owner, as well as authorized third-parties, have the right to: (1) reproduce the work, (i.e., mechanical reproduction of the music for CDs, downloads, and vinyl) (2) distribute the work (i.e., stream or otherwise make the music publicly available) (3) prepare derivative works (4) publicly perform the work (i.e., in a concert or on the radio) and, (5) publicly display the work. The basics of trademark protection will be covered in a separate article.Ī copyright owner is provided with five exclusive rights in their created work. Instead, an individual may apply for trademark protection in a particular artist, band or song name. This means an artist cannot copyright their band name or their song titles. A copyright also does not protect song titles, band names, or slogans. This means that a band logo, album cover art, photographers and music videos could all potentially be protected.Ĭopyright law does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation. Some of these include poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, dance choreography, fine art, comics, sculptural works, and architectural works. There are many copyrightable works some include original literary works, dramatic works, choreography, musical works, audio-visual works and other graphic artistic works.

For a work to be “copyrightable,” it must be original and fixed in tangible form, such as a sound recording recorded (affixed to) on a CD or a literary work printed (affixed to) on paper. A copyright provides the owner with the exclusive right to a particular work for a limited duration of time.

Copyright multiple songs at once