Copyright and its importance

What is copyright and why is it so important?

You have probably no idea what copyright actually means. Well you are not the only out there with this dilemma. I will start by defining ‘copyright’. It is “the exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same”[1]. My definition of copyright is the same one as the one from the google dictionary. Adding a bit of my own words to it would ruin the entire definition. I am writing this because I think that everyone needs to know and understand the rules of copyright and why they are so important.

As the definition says, copyright protects the owner of the information that has been published and it also credits the owners’ originality. “Having ownership means you can protect your work as intellectual property and control who makes money off of it — ideally you and those to whom you assign rights.”[2] It helps the original owner of a particular text or discovery earn money and also own the idea. It makes it easier to tell how one came up with an idea or to see where they stole it from.

Where does copyright come from? And why is it so important?  Copyright traces all the way back to Elizabethan England, which is a very long time ago. It was created to protect arts and science discoveries by different authors. It later on expanded to everything else that they thought needed copyright. Things such as books, inventions, movies, etc. “Anyone who, without permission of the copyright owner, attempts to copy, distribute, display, perform or produce a derivative of a copyrighted work infringes on the copyright, whether or not the work is registered with the U.S”.[3]

Some people would hear someone else’s song or read their lyrics and suddenly have an idea of their ‘own’. Some of those people just added a bit for example then claimed the song was their own idea, which is a lie. So copyright laws help by making sure that someone else’s idea is not stolen or used by someone else as their own idea.

Copyright is a law that all of us as human beings need to abide by. Without copyright laws there would be chaos in this world and no progress.
The Digital Millennium Copyright act if from USA. It was invented in 1998 but became effective in the year 2000. It was implemented by President Bill Clinton.










Bibliography
1. https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+copyright
2. https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-copyright-and-why-is-it-important-to-authors-2800060 
3. http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/copyright-laws-important-2674.html
4. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/copyright/dmca




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