Rights of Copyright Owners
Segmentation of Copyright Rights
Copyright law grants a wide range of rights to the developers of creative works. Today however, those rights are routinely segmented and shared amongst different parties. It is important to recognize, though, that all parties ultimately derive their rights from the original copyright owner.
Segmentation can be illustrated using the example of a musical composition. When a composer writes the music and lyrics for a song, she has created a copyrighted work. If the lyrics and/or the musical score for the song are to be published in printed form, the owner of the copyright must authorize that publication. The rights associated with such publication are commonly referred to as “publishing rights.” The grant of publishing rights grants only the right to publish the lyrics and score, and not, for example, to perform or record the song. The rights necessary to create an audio recording of a musical composition are often characterized as “mechanical” rights, which are distinct from publishing rights. The rights to perform a musical composition is characterized as “performance” rights. Performance rights must be obtained prior to performing the musical composition in a live concert or recording a performance of the song for commercial use.
Duplication Rights
Only the copyright owner of a work has the right to make copies of a protected work. Thus, only the owner of the copyright for a photograph has the right to create additional copies of the image.
Distribution Rights
Only the owner of the copyright has the right to distribute the protected work to other parties. This right extends to copies of the protected work as well. Thus, for instance, the creator of a video game establishes copyright when creating the digital files associated with that game. Only the game creator has the right to distribute the game and copies of the game to other parties. This includes digital copies and physical copies.
Rights of Public Performance and Display
The copyright owner has the exclusive right to present the copyright protected work to the public. Public presentation can take the form of a public performance, such as a live theatrical presentation of a play, or a public display of the work, such as a telecast of a television program. Public performance need not be performed live. For example, it can also involve activities such as music played on a jukebox or material streamed online.
Derivative Works
Derivative works are new creative works that are based on existing copyrighted works. The copyright holder of the original work has the exclusive right to create derivative works based on that original work. For instance, the author of a novel has the right to create or authorize others to create a motion picture or a play based on the novel. The author also has the right to create or authorize others to create translations of the novel in different languages. The translations and the motion picture are examples of derivative works of the original novel. Another example of derivative works is provided by a painting. Initially, the painter owns the copyright for the painting. Derivative works of a painting might include prints that reproduce the original painting, postcards that include photographs of the painting, and refrigerator magnets and other forms of merchandise that depict the painting, digital images of the painting and even those images that have been modified to alter the painting’s appearance.
Fair Use Doctrine
Although the creator of a work obtains exclusive copyright ownership upon presentation of that work in a tangible medium of expression, there are limits to the exercise of that control. Other parties have “fair use” rights to make limited use of copyrighted material for certain purposes deemed to serve the public interest, such as reporting the news, even without a license or other grant of permission from the copyright owner.
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