Copyright Fact and Fiction

Copyright status is primarily granted to well-known authors and filmmakers.

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The Motion Picture Association of America has anti-piracy sniffing dogs.

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Sam buys a new band's CD but decides he doesn't like the singer, so he resells the CD on eBay. That's legal.

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The Public Domain is a polar research station in Antarctica.

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Adam recorded a video for his YouTube channel about the upcoming Senate elections and includes an official photo taken by a government employee and four bills authored by the incumbent that Adam found on the Senate's website. That's copyright infringement.

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Justin downloaded the black-and-white horror classic Night of the Living Dead from the Internet Archive and decided to mix an audio sample from the film into one of his original songs. That's copyright infringement.

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Richard forgot to register his screenplay before he sent it out to agents for review, a year has passed so he's no longer eligible to copyright it.

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Kathy downloaded a few photos of local organic farms from Flickr.com's Creative Commons (CC) pool. She follows the rules of the CC license and uses them in her digital video about sustainable agriculture. That's OK.

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Jason copies the last chapter from the final Harry Potter book to his commercial blog without any additional commentary. Since he only used part of the work, Jason would be protected by "fair use".

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