What is copyright?
Copyright refers to the right of a creator – an author, artist, composer, etc. – to control the use of his or her work by others. The federal copyright statute, Title 17, U.S. Code, consists of a bundle of exclusive rights (see Section 106, “Exclusive Rights in Copyrighted Works”), including the rights to reproduce, distribute, perform and publicly display a work.
As stated on the U.S. Library of Congress website ( http://www.copyright.gov/): 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 This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.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 litera
As soon as an original idea is expressed in a physical medium, such as writing on paper, it qualifies for copyright protection. This right is automatically vested in the author or their employer depending on the contract of employment and the relevant jurisdiction. As a matter of statute law the copyright holder of a work has the right to prevent others from reproducing, distributing and communicating the work electronically to others. Copyright infringement occurs whenever someone other than the copyright holder reproduces, distributes or communicates the work electronically to others without permission from the copyright holder. As far as academic journals published by IOP are concerned IOP believes that academic authors have the rights they need to use the articles for education and research purposes notwithstanding the copyright issue. See Questions 14–21 above.
