What is Copyright?
Copyright protects creative expression that has been reduced to a tangible form, such as a book, piece of recorded music, computer program, screenplay, painting, photograph, or motion picture. This means that if you can see it, hear it and/or touch it - it may be protected. Copyright laws grant the creator the exclusive right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform and display the work publicly.
Copyright Duration: The Berne Convention establishes a general and minimum period that lasts the life of the author and fifty years after his (or her) death. Cinematographic works and photographic works have a minimum period of protection of 50 and 25 years upon the date of creation, respectively.
The creation of copyright starts at the moment when the author creates his or her work and signs it with a copyright symbol on the piece. The signature and symbol show that the person signed on the document is its creator. Moreover, the document will have a date on it, which says when was the document created. In many cases, there are more dates on one document and that is because the author has added some material to his/her work or when some editing was done.
If there is anything else you would like to know about copyright, here is a useful link: http://www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf
Software Piracy
"is the illegal reproduction and distribution of software applications, whether for business or personal use" (Microsoft 2007).
Most people believe that is copying and selling software or games but in fact it can takes many different forms and laws are different in other countries. Even within a culture attitudes may and software/game piracy may be 'seen as normal'.
Actions that would break copyright law:
‡ Giving software copies to others without the owner’s permission
‡ Making a copy of a disk without the owner’s permission
‡ Selling copies of the software without the owner’s permission
‡ Using the software on a network when the licence does not allow it
‡ Renting out the software on a network when the licence does not allow it
‡ Renting out the software/sharing software with others without the permission of
the owner
‡ Using the copyright name on other software
‡ Amending software/using parts of code in own programs without permission
‡ Buying pirated software
Important
Copyright protects creative expression that has been reduced to a tangible form, such as a book, piece of recorded music, computer program, screenplay, painting, photograph, or motion picture.
Trademark protects brand names, literally marking items in trade. The idea behind trademark is to protect the consumer by giving them some confidence that items branded with a certain mark are authentic and come from where they purport to come from.
Patent protects innovation. While you can't copyright an idea, you can patent one.
