The Exclusive Rights and Limitations


Section 106 of the Copyright Act generally gives the owner of the copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to the following:

1. Reproduction Right----The right to copy, duplicate, transcribe, or imitate the work in fixed form.

2. Modification Right (a.k.a. the derivative works right)---- The right to modify the copyrighted work to create a new work. A new work that is based on a preexisting work is known as a "derivative work."

3. Distribution Right---- The right to distribute copies of the work to the public by sale, rental, lease, or lending.

4. Public Performance Right---- The right to recite, play, dance, act, or show the work in a public place or to transmit it to the public. In the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, showing the work's images in sequence is considered "performance."

5. Public Display Right---- The right to show a copy of the work directly or by means of a film, slide, television image at a public place, or to transmit it to the public. In the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, showing the work's images out of sequence is considered "display."

Limitations on the Exclusive Rights

Sections §107 through §121 of the Copyright Act establish limitations on the above mentioned rights, which are as follows:

1. Facts----A work's facts are not protected by copyright, even if the author spent large amounts of time, effort, and money discovering those facts.

2. Ideas----Copyright protection does not extend to the work's ideas, procedures, processes, methods of operation, concepts, principles, or discoveries. It protects only against the unauthorized taking of a protected work's "expression."

3. Independent Creation Doctrine----A copyright owner has no recourse against another person who, working independently, creates an exact duplicate of the copyrighted work. The independent creation of a similar work, or even an exact duplicate, does not violate any of the copyright owner's exclusive rights.

4. Fair Use Doctrine----The "fair use" of a copyrighted work, including use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. The Copyright Act does not define fair use. Instead, whether a use is fair use is determined by balancing factors such as the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, and the effect of the use on the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work.

(Updated 10/4/2012 by AG)

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