Copyright and Fair Use

Copyright is a law that protects people's creative work. When someone writes a book, paints a picture, or writes a song, they own that work. Other people cannot copy it without permission. Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted material for things like education and news.

What Copyright Protects

Copyright protects books, songs, movies, art, photographs, and more. The person who creates something automatically owns the copyright. This means no one else can copy, sell, or perform the work without permission. Copyright protection usually lasts for many decades.

What Is Fair Use

Fair use is an exception to copyright rules. It allows people to use small parts of copyrighted work for certain purposes. Students can quote a few lines from a book in a report. Teachers can share short passages in class. News reporters can show brief clips when covering a story.

Fun Facts

• The copyright symbol is the letter C inside a circle.
• The first copyright law in America was passed in 1790.
• Some authors choose to share their work freely using a Creative Commons license.

Did You Know?

The song Happy Birthday was under copyright for many years, and people had to pay to use it in movies and TV shows until 2016.