Standard Contents Of A Copyright Statement

In this day and age, it would be safe to assume that most people have seen and read notices informing the public of the copyright protection of certain items. Such a notice is called a copyright statement; it declares that the item on which it is written is protected by law from unlicensed duplication and selling. Such a declaration would be found in one of the first pages of a book; or at the end of articles; or on the jackets of DVDs and tapes of movies and shows. The same notice can usually be found at the end of movies, after all cast and credits have been named.

Essential Contents of a Notice of Copyright

A valid notice of copyright has some indispensable parts without which the notice is deemed lacking. The first of this is the presence of the word copyright or the symbol © or both. In some countries the copyright symbol © must appear in the notice in order for protection to be enforceable.

The notice must contain the name of the owner of copyright who would normally be the author or creator of the work. When employees were hired for the purpose of writing or putting together the creative work, the legal owner of the copyright would be the employer. The notice must likewise specify the year when the work is first published.

The standard appearance of a copyright notice is as follows: the symbol © followed by the name of the copyright owner then a period. After the period, the words saying that all rights are reserved usually follow. Sometimes a statement saying that no part of the document can be reproduced or transmitted without explicit written permission from the copyright owner further elucidates the concept of reserving all rights.

Other Restrictions Contained in Copyright Notices

Aside from the essential contents of a copyright statement, the copyright owner could then go on to state that permission must be sought to duplicate the work through photocopying or recording or through electronic, mechanical or any other means. When the notice is written in relatively detailed style, it often further states that the item cannot be altered, modified, adapted or distributed in any way without permission. As a matter of course, an address is provided so that those concerned can ask for written consent.

Some notices provide possible exceptions to the copyright restrictions saying that the work may be reprinted either in full or in part as long as it is kept in its original form and for as long as educational institutions copy it for nonprofit purposes. Copies made under this condition must declare whom the copyright owner is and must state that the copy is made with the permission of the copyright owner. However, regardless of how detailed the statement is, it cannot, under any circumstances, exceed one page.

The Importance of a Copyright Statement

Countries that signed the Berne Convention of 1989 are no longer required to put a notice of their copyright on protected items. Still, the use of this statement retains some significance because it unequivocally informs the public who owns the copyright to the work. In case there is a lawsuit, the presence of a notice for all and sundry to see means ignorance cannot be used as an excuse by those who have violated the rights of the copyright owner. The notice serves to make everyone see that the work is protected so that defendants in a dispute would then be unable to claim innocent infringement. In a way, it can be said that the best use of the notice lies in separating the merely uninformed from the fundamentally malicious.