Copyright Basics

A Copyright is a form of intellectual property protection based on Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Copyright protection is founded on two seemingly conflicting policies. Copyrights seek to protect an author's creativity and expression by granting certain exclusionary rights while at the same time seeking to encourage authors to allow public access to their works. As in patent law, copyrights seek to balance these competing interests by providing certain exclusive rights to authors for a limited period of time. Copyright protection exists in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.