Access Services Librarian
Copyright
Copyright developed in the European legal tradition with two explicit purposes: to control ownership, use, and distribution of creative and expressive works; and by doing so, to promote the socially-useful growth of knowledge, both scientific/technical and artistic/creative.
Professor Dennis Natali of Pikes Peak State College observes that, "Copyright law was so important to the United States’ founding fathers that they codified it into the first article of the US Constitution. Most US Laws are a response to important social Issues. During the colonial period [...] all citizens were subjects to the King of England. And everything belonged to the King, including your house and anything you created. Thus, the architects of the US Constitution wanted to enshrine fundamental rights, including Copyright."
Copyright protects “original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed” (https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html). More generally, copyright seeks to protect specific expression of intellectual labor from the sort of commercial predation seen in the period after the widespread introduction of early printing technology in Europe, where extant books (or manuscripts) could be reprinted without the author’s permission, and without the author receiving any sort of compensation. This was perceived as not simply an economic injury, but a social one as well, since it was believed that without control over intellectual property and compensation for its reproduction and transmission, there was a disincentive to create and disseminate it in the first place.
Copyright is not the only legal mechanism for protecting one’s intellectual labor and production: patents and trademarks are similar mechanisms, and theoretically serve similar purposes. However, unlike copyright, registered trademarks are recognized by law as a protection of brand identity, and patents protect the execution of concepts (one can patent a process for producing rubber, but not the production of rubber in general or the substance itself).
Copyright is inherent in the creation of the work in most jurisdictions, and although claiming copyright of one’s work may help defend it in legal cases, doing so is not necessary to establish the right. The public domain consists of everything which is either ineligible for copyright or where copyright has expired. Copyright does not apply to things which exceed the scope of individual creation, including facts, scientific principles, mathematical formulae, scientific methodologies, and also laws, judicial opinions, laws, legislative reports, and works of (the U.S.) government (although with some exceptions for works produced by individuals, e.g., scientific reports written and published by federally-funded research scientists).
Exceptions and limitations to copyright vary to a degree by jurisdiction, but under U.S. Law (USC 17:107-122), they are fair use (for purposes of scholarship, research, comment, criticism, teaching, and news reporting); library use; right of sale (that is, once I purchase a book, although copyright prohibits me from reproducing it for sale, I may sell or give away my copy); teaching (with different provisions for face-to-face and online pedagogy); and access by persons with disabilities.