Copyright is a form of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship including literary works, musical and dramatic works, pictorial and graphic works, motion pictures and sound recordings, and choreography.
These works must be fixed in a tangible medium of expression to be protected by copyright. In other words, they must be written down, saved electronically, or recorded in some other tangible form.
Including a copyright symbol is no longer required to receive copyright protection.
The length of copyright protection is a complicated issue because the law has changed over the years. As a general rule, works published after 1977 are protected by copyright for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years. The Cornell University Libraries maintain a comprehensive chart of copyright terms and the public domain in the United States.
Copyright holders are granted exclusive rights in the protected works, including the right to:
Copyright owners may also transfer some or all of these rights to others or authorize them exercise them.
Creative works in the public domain are not protected by copyright and anyone may use them without seeking permission. There are several common ways that a work may enter the public domain, including:
Works created using public domain content may still be subject to copyright protection.
The design of this page was partly adapted from Research: By Course, Subject, or Topic, by University of Arizona Libraries, © 2020 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of The University of Arizona, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.