Copyright Law

Alchimista - Thursday, October 16, 2025

In today’s digital age, where creative content and information are shared globally at the click of a button, understanding copyright law has become more essential than ever for creators, consumers, cultural institutions and businesses alike. As a cornerstone of intellectual property rights, copyright protects original works, ranging from music and film to images, educational materials, and even memes, ensuring that creators are recognized and rewarded for their efforts.

At the same time, understanding copyright also opens up opportunities for responsible content sharing and reuse through mechanisms such as fair use, the public domain, and open licensing. By learning how copyright operates, individuals and institutions can both safeguard creative works and promote wider public access to culture, knowledge, and innovation in an increasingly connected world.

What is copyright?

Copyright is a type of legal protection for original creative work. It automatically applies as soon as someone creates something and records it in a physical or digital form, without the need for a formal recognition process. This includes many kinds of work like paintings, photos, drawings, songs, recordings, computer programs, books, poems, blog posts, movies, buildings, plays, and much more.

Copyright law defines the basic rules for how original works can be used. It grants creators exclusive rights over their creations, meaning that others cannot copy, share, perform, or adapt them without permission from the copyright holder. At the same time, it provides clear guidelines for how creative works can be shared and monetized, offering a structured system for licensing.

Most countries separate copyright into two main types of rights:

Economic rights: These give creators the ability to earn money when others use their work. For example, they can sell, license, or charge fees for reproduction, performance, or distribution.
Moral rights: These protect the personal connection between the creator and their work. They include the right to be recognized as the author and the right to protect integrity of their work.

Through licensing, creators can allow others to use their work legally under specific conditions while still maintaining ownership and control.

Importantly, copyright protection applies not to the underlying facts or ideas, but to the unique expression and form through which they are communicated. It might not apply to things like titles, slogans, or logos unless they show enough creative originality.

Copyright law aims to balance the rights of creators with the public’s interest. After a set period, protected works eventually enter the public domain, where they can be freely used by anyone. This shift is important because it allows people to access, reuse, and build upon older works, encouraging new ideas and creative projects. Classic books, historical records, and famous artworks in the public domain often inspire fresh interpretations, adaptations, and educational uses. In this way, copyright not only supports individual creators but also helps share knowledge and preserve cultural heritage for future generations.

Purpose of Copyright

The purpose of copyright is to protect original creative works and encourage innovation by giving creators exclusive rights to control how their work is used. It also ensures that the public eventually gains free access to these works through the public domain.

Utilitarian approach: This view sees copyright as a way to encourage people to create by offering rewards, such as money or recognition. The goal is to benefit society through the creative works that result. This approach is mainly used in common law tradition (e.g., the U.S. and U.K.).
Author’s rights approach: This view focuses on the personal bond between creators and their work. It emphasizes moral rights, like the right to be credited and the right to protect the work integrity. This approach is more common in civil law.

Copyright vs. Other Intellectual Property Rights

Public domain, by Jennifer Jenkins and S. Dudley, via Wikimedia Commons

Copyright is one of several legal tools used to protect intellectual property (IP), which refers to creations of the mind—such as inventions, artistic works, designs, symbols, and names. While copyright specifically safeguards original expressions of ideas, other forms of IP law serve different purposes and apply to different types of creations. Understanding how copyright compares to other IP rights helps clarify what kind of protection is appropriate for a given work or innovation. To understand copyright, it is helpful to understand the fundamentals of at least two other forms of intellectual property and the legal protections they provide, but keeping in mind there are other Intellectual Property Rights.

Copyright protects the specific expression of ideas—like a book, song, or painting—and arises automatically when the work is fixed in a tangible form; registration is optional but can strengthen enforcement options.
Trademarks protect identifiers that signal the origin of goods or services and are intended to prevent consumer confusion; trademark rights are maintained through use and formal registration provides stronger nationwide or regional protection and enforcement.

Patents protect inventions that are novel, useful, and non-obvious by granting the inventor exclusive rights for a limited time after a formal examination and grant process; patents require filing, statutory requirements, and typically expire after a fixed term.

These forms of intellectual property can overlap for a single product: for example, software may be covered by copyright (code, interface), trademarks (brand name), and patents (novel algorithms or technical features)

Exceptions and limitations to copyright

Exceptions and limitations are legal provisions that allow the use of copyrighted works without the creator’s permission in certain circumstances, aiming to balance the rights of creators with the public interest.

Typical situations include education, quoting, news reporting, research, parody, and accessibility for people with disabilities. Some legal systems apply flexible rules, such as fair use, which considers purpose, amount, and market impact, while others follow fixed lists, like fair dealing, specifying only certain allowed uses. International law requires that exceptions be narrowly defined and not adversely affect the work’s normal market.

Certain schemes, like compulsory licensing, permit the reuse of works—commonly music—without the right's holder’s direct permission in exchange for predetermined fees. Additionally, international agreements, such as the Marrakesh Treaty, allow the creation and distribution of accessible-format copies of published works for people who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print-disabled, improving access to knowledge and culture.

Public domain

The public domain comprises creative works no longer protected by copyright, allowing anyone to use them freely without permission or payment. Works usually enter the public domain when copyright expires (typically the author’s life plus a set number of years), when they were never eligible for protection (such as facts or ideas), or when the creator deliberately dedicates them.

Works in the public domain can be freely copied, adapted, distributed, and used commercially. Any new creative contributions to these works can be copyrighted, though protection applies only to the new material. Users should be aware of certain limitations, including variations in copyright terms between countries, surviving moral rights, and other legal protections such as trademarks or publicity rights. Additionally, orphan works—those whose rightsholders are unknown—may still be protected under copyright.

The public domain preserves cultural heritage, lowers transaction costs, and fosters education and new creativity—yet it is essential to verify a work’s public-domain status in the relevant jurisdiction before reuse.

A Simplified Summary of Public Domain Status for Creative Works in US Copyright Law (excluding audio works), by Aharonium, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

References and further readings

Creative Commons. 2.1 Copyright Basics. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/2-1-copyright-basics/. CC BY 4.0.
Creative Commons. 2.2 Global Aspects of Copyright. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/2-2-global-aspects-of-copyright/ CC BY 4.0.
Creative Commons. 2.3 The Public Domain. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/2-3-the-public-domain/. CC BY 4.0. Creative Commons. 2.4 Exceptions and Limitations to Copyright.
https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/2-4-exceptions-and-limitations-to-copyright/. CC BY 4.0.
Copyright Alliance. Copyright Law Explained. https://copyrightalliance.org/education/copyright-law-explained/ Copyright
Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center. Fair Use Overview. https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/CC BY NC 4.0
WIPO. Copyright. https://www.wipo.int/en/web/copyright CC BY 4.0.
WIPO. Understanding Copyright and Related Rights. https://www.wipo.int/publications/en/details.jsp?id=4081