INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
Copyright
Copyright is a legal right that protects original work of authorship in most countries. Typically, if you create an original work, you have a copyright from the moment that you create it, and the right covers:
- Visual or audiovisual works such as videos, films, TV shows and broadcasts, video games, paintings, and photographs.
- Audio works such as songs, musical compositions, sound recordings, spoken word recordings.
- Written works such as books, plays, manuscripts, articles, and musical scores.
In general, the person who creates an original work owns the copyright. For example, if you create a painting, you likely own the copyright for it. However, there may be some situations where you might think you have a copyright in a creative work, but you may not. For example:
- If you appear in a photo or video, that does not necessarily mean you have a copyright in that photo or video.
- If you take a photograph of a sculpture, that does not mean you have the right to prevent someone else from also taking a photograph of the same sculpture.
- If you create a work as part of your regular job responsibilities, you might not be the owner of the copyright in that work. Instead, there are circumstances where the law will consider your employer to be the ‘’author’’ of that work for copyright purposes.
As a copyright owner, you have certain rights under the law such as stop others from copying or distributing your work from creating new works based on your work. However, copyright protection does not last forever. Eventually, work loses copyright protection and becomes part of the public domain. Once a work is in the public domain, it’s freely available for anyone to use.
Trademark
Trademark law is meant to prevent consumer harm because it prohibits someone other than the rights owner from using a trademark in a way that may confuse consumers. Trademark law protects brand names, slogans, logos, or other symbols that help consumers identify the source of good or services.
Do not post content if you think it might violate this policy. If you think your work or someone’s you know work is copied, please report it.
