Copyright is the core section of the law that protects authors, artists, and other creators for their creations in literature and art – commonly referred as “works”. According to regulations, works eligible for copyright protection are original intellectual creations.They are protected regardless of quality and include technical instructions or simply technical drawings. In general, copyright law does not provide a comprehensive list of works covered by copyright. However, in practice, all countries’ laws protect the following subjects:
- Literary work;
- Musical work;
- Artwork;
- Map and technical drawing;
- Photographic work;
- Cinematographic work;
- Computer Program;
- Multimedia products;
Therefore, computer programmers, web designers, multimedia entrepreneurs, advertising agencies, radio stations, publishers and television stations create and promote copyrighted works under the usual rules and they must be aware of the type of protection that has been granted to their works to properly take advantage of them. Furthermore, companies whose main activity is not the creation or promotion of copyrighted works require an understanding of the copyright system because the company’s website, advertisements, brochures, instruction manuals, and other materials are often copyrighted. In addition, when using other people’s copyrighted works, such as computer programs, businesses must be cautious.
It is crucial to remember that copyright law only protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. Creativity protected by copyright law includes the selection and arrangement of words, musical notes, colors, computer codes, etc. As a result, though the main idea and plot of two romantic novels may be extremely similar, the way they are presented and the words used to describe them distinguish each original work as a distinct subject of copyright protection.
