Information is from the US Copyright Office at: http://www.copyright.gov/ and the Copyright Alliance located at: http://www.copyrightalliance.org/index.php . Please visit those sites for greater detail.
Clipped and shortened from the US Copyright Office at: http://www.copyright.gov/
What Is Copyright?
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U. S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following:
• To reproduce the work in copies;
• To distribute copies to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership;
It is illegal for anyone to violate any of the rights provided by the copyright law to the owner of copyright. (—pause quote—Please Note: Those who upload for the world to share without verifiable permission from the author—aka pirating—are in violation of copyright law—continue quote—)
Who Can Claim Copyright?
Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed form. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work. Only the author or those deriving their rights through the author can rightfully claim copyright. (—end quote—Please Note: If you do not have permission from the author, you are in violation of copyright law)
Reiteration for those who don’t understand is put in simple terms and clipped and shortened from the Copyright Alliance located at: http://www.copyrightalliance.org/index.php
A copyright is a bundle of exclusive rights granted to a creator of an original work of authorship that has been fixed in a material medium. Physical paper book and eBooks are both tangible mediums.
Copyright owners are granted the exclusive right to control the:
Reproduction of their work
AND
Distribution of their work
(—pause quote—Again, Please Note: If you do not have permission from the author and upload the eBook for others—aka pirating—you are in violation of copyright law—continue quote—)
Works of original authorship that are fixed in a tangible medium qualify for copyright protection, including:
Literature, poetry and other literary works (—pause quote—this includes eBooks—continue quote—)
Under the Copyright Act, the person who creates a work is the copyright owner and as such is the beneficiary of the exclusive rights of copyright.
Once a work has been fixed in tangible form, the exclusive rights of copyright apply automatically. The work does not need to be registered with the Copyright Office. (—end quote)
Again, information is from the US Copyright Office at: http://www.copyright.gov/ and the Copyright Alliance located at: http://www.copyrightalliance.org/index.php . Please visit those sites for greater detail.
I stand corrected when someone brought this to my attention. :)
ReplyDelete---quote---
Actually, ebooks are not tangible. That's why there is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Just as everyone knows that it is illegal to go to a copyshop with a paperback or hardback, and to photocopy it, so it is illegal to go online and copy an ebook from your desktop (etc) to a file sharing site.
The trouble is, at 5c or more a page, it costs more to photocopy a paperback than it does to purchase a copy. It costs nothing to duplicate an e-book.
If you didn't write it, or paint/draw it, or take a photograph of it yourself, you cannot legally share it. Unless you have explicit written permission from the author.
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Very true words. Thank you. :)