Copyright

Copyright on the internet is a very important issue. Without it, anyone could claim credit for others' works that they did not do, and/or pass it off as their own. It'd also permit people to download anything they like and use it for whatever reason.

Many people out on the internet act without regards to copyright. See a picture you like? Download it. See a music file you want? Download it. Game? Download it. But is this behavior right? And more so is it LEGAL? Those questions are what copyright is designed to answer.

Terms:

• Author - a person who writes a website or creates another work.
• Copyright - the law that states that, unless expressly stated otherwise, authors retain rights to and over their work.
• Intellectual Property - the names, images, and other files associated with an author's copyrighted work.
• Intellectual Property Law - the law that governs Intellectual Property
• Public Domain - anything that is open for free for anyone to use - uncopyrighted works
• Right of Privacy - a right granted to people to decide what is right for themselves
• Royalty - fees paid to someone in exchange for their permission to use their copyrighted work
• Terms of Use - document which lays out what the rights of the end user are in respect to copyrighted work
• Trade Dress Law - Law protecting the packaging of an item as copyrighted
• Work of Authorship - the actual work written by an author

Resources for Copyright Issues

U.S. Copyright Office

Kid-friendly copyright website

Cornell's website on Copyrights