Copyright is protection, for a limited time, for original work. From the moment of creation, a set of rights are automatically bestowed on the author. To qualify, the work must have some minimal amount of creativity and be fixed in a tangible, communicable form. An unrecorded conversation would not qualify, neither would an exact reproduction of another work. Books, photos, maps, music, plays, choreography, art, movies, webpages, software, and architecture are examples of works protected by copyright.
There are many things that are not protected by copyright. Ideas and concepts can't be copyrighted. Neither can procedures, processes, methods, or discoveries. Some of these may be protected by patent or trade secret law. U.S. government publications and information that is held in common like calendars and standard tools for measurement are not protected by copyright. Ingredients in a recipe cannot be protected, nor can lists of contents. To minimize confusion in the marketplace, names, titles, short phrases, and familiar symbols, while not protected by copyright, may be afforded protection under trademark law.
In the United States, copyright expires seventy years after the author dies. Works that are no longer protected by copyright are said to be in the public domain. Everyone is entitled to copy and build upon works in the public domain. For example, the public domain enables publishers to reprint their own editions of older works, like plays by Shakespeare. However, because copyright protection may differ by country, it is advisable to consult the laws of the country of origin. Anything published in the United States before 1929 is considered to be in the public domain. Corporations can also be authors. The copyright for US corporate works expires 100 years after publication.
Federal government publications fall within the public domain, but state government publications vary from state to state (Harvard State Copyright Resource Center).
You can refer to Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States (Cornell University) if you would like to know if a work is still protected by copyright or in the public domain.
From the moment of creation, the author of a work enjoys an exclusive set of rights over their work. These rights function as incentives to create, and can be split into pieces, bought or sold like any other commodity in the marketplace. Altogether, this bundle of rights make up what we refer to as "copyright."
Copyright is the exclusive right to:
In addition to these economic rights, creators also enjoy "Moral Rights" that protect their claim to authorship and their reputation as author.
For more information, contact Anthony Davis Jr., Copyright & Policy Librarian, anthonydavis@fullerton.edu.