Copyright protects the expression of ideas, once the idea is fixed in a tangible medium.

For example, copyright protects books, works of art, photographs, music, films and broadcasts.

Copyright does not protect ideas or facts.

Copyright is intangible personal property, and is distinct from physical property. For example, I may own a book that I purchased from a bookstore, but I do not own the copyright in that book.

There is no system of copyright registration in Australia or in most other countries. Copyright protection arises automatically.

See Copyright rights.

Usually, the author of the work is the owner of the copyright in the work.

If the author is an employee, and the work is made in the course of employment, then the employer is the first owner of the copyright.

If the author is an independent contractor, then the author will own the copyright in the work, even if paid by another to create the work, unless there is a written agreement to the contrary.

To assign copyright, the assignment must be in writing and signed by the assignor.

Copyright rights can be divided. Different people can own different copyright rights in a work. For example, one publisher can own the copyright rights to publish a hard copy and another publisher can own the copyright in the same work to publish electronic copies of the work.

See Authorship and ownership.

Copyright is a bundle of exclusive rights.

For each work, there are defined exclusive rights in the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Copyright protects more than simply the prevention of authorised copying of a work. It also prevents others from adapting the work, performing the work and publishing the work and communicating the work to the public.

The nature of the work determines the scope and duration of protection.

The exclusive rights granted to a copyright owner may be licensed or transferred by assignment, but transfers, or sales or exclusive licences of copyright must be in writing and signed by the copyright owner.

See Exclusive rights.

Infringement of copyright occurs when there is an unauthorised use of one of the exclusive rights granted to a copyright owner.

A person who authorised infringement by another also is an infringer.

It is also copyright infringement to do certain indirect acts, such as importing an infringing work into Australia or selling an infringing work in certain circumstances.

There is no infringement if the use is authorised by the copyright owner. That is, if the person doing the act has a licence from the copyright owner.

There are exceptions to infringement. One set of exceptions is the fair dealing exceptions. These are fair dealing with the copyright work for:

• research or study;

• criticism or review;

• the reporting of news; or

• professional legal advice.

Copyright does not prevent the use of the same idea or information when there is no copying. For example, if two authors, without copying, independently create similar works based on the same idea, then both authors have copyright in their works, and there is no copyright infringement.

Injunctions, damages, criminal penalties and customs seizures are available as remedies for the infringement of copyright.

See Infringement.

Each country has different copyright laws. There is no single international copyright.

Australia is a party to a number of treaties relating to copyright protection.

These international treaties and agreements establish minimum standards for copyright protection in each member country. The principle of “national treatment” means that each treaty member country gives the same rights to the nationals of other treaty countries as it gives to its own nationals under its own law. The treaties require automatic protection, without formalities such as registration.

Thus, works created in Australia or by an Australian will likely receive copyright protection in most other countries, under the domestic laws of those countries.

See International issues.

Copyright creators have a number of non-economic rights, known as moral rights. These are:

• the right of integrity;

• the right of attribution of authorship; and

• the right against false attribution of authorship.

Even when not the copyright owner, the author still has the moral rights of attribution and integrity and against false attribution in respect of their works.

Performers’ rights give performers the right to prevent unauthorised recording or broadcasting of their performances (also known as “bootlegging” of their performances).

The proliferation of social media has introduced new issues in relation to copyright ownership and infringement online.

See Moral rights and other issues.