Welcome to the
Copyright Website
Welcome to the nexus of creativity and legality—your premier source for navigating the complex world of copyright. Launched on May Day 1995, the Copyright Website strives to lubricate the machinations of information delivery. As spice is to Dune, information is to the web; the spice must flow. Our mission is to provide the knowledge and tools to help you optimize your own information and creative works.
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The Universal
Copyright System
As the Copyright Website prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary, it is excited to unveil the Universal Copyright System.
Learn moreCopyright Flavors
Movies, TV, Artwork and more
Music, Lyrics, Samples, and more
Internet, AI, Software, and more
Basics, History, Fair Use and more
Registration, Legislation, and more
Instant registration for your creative works
Copyright Stats
Number of subscribers
25K +
Registrations completed
7K +
Serving the Internet for
30 years
Countries now served
243
What is Copyright?
Here in the information age, virtually all intellectual creations can be protected by some form of intellectual property law.
Copyrights
Copyright protects creative expression that has been reduced to tangible form.
Patents
Patents protect innovation. While you can't copyright an idea, you can patent one.
Trade Secrets
Trade secrets protect confidential business information that provides a competitive edge.
In a nutshell, copyright protects expression, patents protect ideas, and trade secrets protect confidential business information that provides a competitive edge.
1Copyright
Copyright protects creative expression that has been reduced to tangible form, such as a book, piece of recorded music, computer program, screenplay, painting, photograph, or motion picture.
The moment you fix your original work in a tangible form (like writing it down or recording it), you are copyrighted. No, you do not need to register with the Library of Congress or send yourself a sealed copy in the mail (though that's a fun myth). However, registering does give you legal advantages if someone decides to use your work without asking.
Key features:
- Automatic protection upon creation
- Long duration (typically life of the author plus 70 years)
- Covers expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves
- Examples: books, songs, movies, software code
2Patents
Patent protects innovation. While you can't copyright an idea, you can patent one. The idea behind patent is to encourage innovation by giving inventors a limited monopoly on their ideas.
You have to prove your invention is new, useful, and non-obvious. Then, for a hefty fee and a lot of patience, you might get a 20-year monopoly on your invention. But remember, you're telling the world how it works, so if you're not ready to share, maybe reconsider.
Key features:
- Requires application and approval process
- Limited duration (typically 20 years from filing date)
- Protects novel, non-obvious, and useful inventions
- Examples: new machines, chemical compounds, processes
3Trade Secrets
A trade secret is confidential business information that provides a competitive edge. Unlike patents and copyrights, trade secrets rely on maintaining secrecy rather than legal registration.
You just have to keep it secret. If you're caught sharing your secret sauce recipe, well, it's not a secret anymore. The protection lasts as long as the secret remains, well, secret.
Key features:
- No registration required
- Potentially indefinite protection as long as secrecy is maintained
- Protects formulas, patterns, devices, or compilations of information
- Examples: Coca-Cola formula, Google's search algorithm
