Exceptions To Copyright Infringement

When a person gets his original work copyrighted, he or she is bestowed with the legal rights for exclusively producing or publishing their work and thereafter, his or her work is protected from reproduction or copying or modified use by others. Other people cannot use that piece of work without obtaining the necessary permission from the creator of the work. A copyrighted material is usually denoted by a ‘c’ with a circle around it or the word ‘Copyright’ and the name of the copyright holder followed by the year of publication.

Copyright infringement occurs when someone other than the original creator makes a new piece (with or without modification) with the motive of copying and reselling it for commercial gains. However, copyright infringement does not occur each time when an original piece of work is reproduces. There are certain exceptions to copyright infringement which are enlisted here.

Fair use of copyrighted material implies the use of a small portion of the copyrighted material for non-commercial or non-profit educational purpose only. Complete literary works or complete pieces of art and music can be used for reviewing, literary criticism or for the purpose of teaching without obtaining any permission for accessing the original work. However, the relevance of fair use is determined on a case to case basis.

Public Domain refers to work which is no longer covered by the copyright law because the copyright has expired. Usually, for any work created after January 1, 1978 the copyright protection lasts for a lifetime plus an additional fifty to seventy years after the death of the copyright holder.

Materials such as a few sheets of facts or ideas cannot be copyrighted unless they are compiled into a book form. Therefore, reproducing material taken from such non-copyrightable sources does not amount to copyright infringement.