COPYRIGHT ACT

Copyright Act of 1976

Copyright Act of 1976

Introduction

The law of copyright of the United States is the Copyright Act of 1976. This act remains the fundamental foundation of the copyright law in the United States and is amended by various ratified provisions of the copyright. This copyright act points out the necessary rights of the copyright holders and is codified with the principle and policy of “fair use”.

Copyright Act of 1976 is the new copyrights that is accepted as a significant term and are relied on the author death, inspired of the previous system that was based on fixed starting and renewal conditions. This copyright became the Public Law with the number 94-553 on 19th October, 1976 and was effective from 1st January, 1978.

In the research and identification of the copyright holders, Copyright Act of 1976 law is supportive for the recalling of the basic matters of copy right. These matters include the copyright law, administrative issues relevant to the cases of copyright, and government authorities managing the copyright. According to the law of the United States, the copyright protection is offered to the authors and creators of the inventive works. These works include the art, drama, literature, music and other types of the intellectual property (Berkeley, 2013).

The copyright is also provide healthy security to both publish and un-published work. The protection of copyright exists from the time the work is crafted in a permanent form. Once this happens, immediately the copyright of the work becomes the possession of the creator or author. The claiming of the rights can be only done by the creator, author, or any entity that derives the rights (Berkeley, 2013).

Discussion

History

The last major revision to the copyright law of statutory happened in the year 1909. In planning the Act, the United States Congress realized that the widespread advancements of the technology had happened since the implementation of the Act of 1909. Radio, motion pictures, television, and sound recordings were cited as the main features that improve their reputation.

In order to address the intellectual property, Copyright Act of 1909 was intended along with the questions that were being introduced by new communication techniques (Berkeley, 2013). The main impetus behind the implementation of the Act of 1976, aside from the advancements in the communication and technology, was the participation and development of the United States in the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC).

The Copyright Act of 1976

As defined by the law of the United States, the major legislation governing the issues of copyright is the Copyright Act of 1976. Generally, federal copyright was protected with notice of copyright by the act of publication before the Copyright Act of 1976. A variety of the amendments have been appended to the Copyright Act since 1976 which consists of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

The Copyright Act of 1976 is a detailed law and covers almost all the rights of intellectual property (Pallante, 2011). However, the main points of this Act are addressed below to become known with some of the ...