So
- Fair use: Includes standard stuff like research, private study, criticism/review, reporting current events, judicial proceeding, amateur performance to a non-paying audience and some more ambiguous stuff (“the making of sound recordings of literary, dramatic or musical works under certain conditions”)
- You own copyright to all photos of yourself (caveat: see fair use): “In the case of a photograph taken, or a painting or portrait drawn, or an engraving or a cinematograph film made, for valuable consideration at the instance of any person, such person shall, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, be the first owner of the copyright therein.” Update: This is only true for photos you have paid for. See Joe Buck’s comment below.
- Computer programs are about the same as literary works: With the exception that you can “sell or give on hire or offer for sale or hire, regardless of whether such a copy has been sold or given on hire on earlier occasion.”
- Translations: Are protected by your copyright
- Registering copyright: By default, you own the copyright to work that you have created. “However, certificate of registration of copyright and the entries made therein serve as prima facie evidence in a court of law with reference to dispute relating to ownership of copyright.”
- Term of copyright: 60 years after death of the author for most things. 60 years from date of publication cinematograph films, photographs, posthumous publications, anonymous and pseudonymous publications, and some other stuff.
Phew! Certainly learned some new stuff today.
4 Comments
Official copyright registration is not available in most countries, as the basic rule (according to international convention that nearly every countries are signatories to) is that you own copyright from the moment you record it (write it, save it to a file etc.). As you rightly point out it can be used as evidence that you own this content (unless someone else can show that they had it first). Same thing is achieved through services like http://www.digiprove.com
So can Digiprove be used in India? i.e., is it admissible in judicial proceedings over here?
Read it again:
‘You own copyright to all photos of yourself (caveat: see fair use): “In the case of a photograph taken, or a painting or portrait drawn, or an engraving or a cinematograph film made, for valuable consideration at the instance of any person, such person shall, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, be the first owner of the copyright therein.” ‘
The key phrase is “for valuable consideration”. This means that if you paid a photographer to take a picture of you, you own the copyright, unless there is an agreement to the contrary. It doesn’t mean that all of the random people in a crowd scene own the copyright to a news photograph.
That makes a lot more sense, of course. Thanks for pointing it out! I’ve updated the post.