Most writers, inventors and artists have come to know the importance of protecting their work with a copyright right after they have finished with it. Although technically an original work is intrinsically under copyright upon its creation, obtaining a registered copyright has never hurt an author. Furthermore, it is the best way to ensure that in the event that there is lawsuit, damages be claimed.
The copyright can be declared in a book or an article merely by affixing the enclosed letter C © followed by the author’s name, a comma then the year that it was written. To avoid the expense of paying for registration, some authors will simply mail a hard copy and an electronic copy to themselves, a trusted colleague and a friend or relative. Those who want to have some safeguard against plagiarism and make sure that they can litigate for damages register a copyright registration organization which will store a copy of the work and produce it as evidence should this be needed.
Types of Rights Granted through a License
While a copyright is inherent in a creative work and can be obtained informally, a license is a totally different matter. Copyright licensing is an actual but simple process which persons must go through to obtain permission from copyright holders.
The copyright gives the creator of any intellectual property the exclusive right to publish, copy, sell and distribute it. A license permits another party to exercise these rights. In the case of books, a license is usually necessary for the creative work to be printed and published.
The creator or copyright holder of a work can assign his or her rights or aspects of these rights to another party through a license. When this happens, the creator surrenders his copyright to the licensee on a one time basis or permanently. Once these rights have been assigned permanently, the original creator can no longer sell, publish pr distribute the work without explicit permission from the licensee who is in effect the new copyright holder. Usually licenses are granted in exchange for compensation or as part of a contract that entails future royalties.
Some licenses only permit the licensee to print, publish and sell the work in limited areas. This type of license grants only regional rights; the creator of the work is still able to sell or license the work in other areas. An example of this would be when a magazine circulated in Europe is licensed to serialize a novel. The author could give regional rights and then sell rights to the same novel for circulation in some other place.
Online rights can be licensed which means the licensee can distribute online while leaving the creator of the work free to print and commercially distribute the work. Parallel to this, print rights can be granted leaving the creator free to distribute the work online.
The Licensing Process
Procuring a license begins with a written and signed transfer of copyright ownership from the copyright owner to the licensee. All that is required is a simple written document identifying the work and specifying the rights being assigned. This transfer of copyright may and should be recorded in the U.S. Copyright Office which has an easy-to-access website.
Licensing now covers a broader field than it used to because of the many ways that information and works can be copied, reproduced and distributed. Several organizations and agencies provide assistance in copyright licensing for works owned by their clients or rights holders. If these organizations are nonprofit, the money collected in license fees is distributed to the copyright owners. One UK based licensing organization was able to distribute £51.4 million pounds in 2010 to authors, visual artists and publishers. Another organization based in the US was able to distribute more than a billion US dollars to its rights holders.
Today there is an amazingly unlimited amount of resources available that can be productively and creatively put to use. However, when these resources – whether online, in print or in some other medium – are covered by a copyright, it is best to get a license to avoid legal complications. Understanding copyrights and copyright licensing is a start in ensuring that the simple act of copying, cutting, pasting and downloading do not become acts of infringement