Copyright is a bundle of rights that apply to creative industry professionals in relation to their work (or their ‘Intellectual Property‘). Copyright is free, automatically applies to every kind of creative work once you have created it or recorded it in some way, can be shown by a symbol and is the most powerful rights you can own as a creator.
Copyright enables you to control your Intellectual Property and get money for use or reproduction of work. Copyright gives you ownership rights to your work, and it is legal protection when you create a piece of work that gives you the support of Australian and international laws.
Copyright means that only you have the rights to do certain things with your work. You have the right to:
- reproduce or copy your work
- communicate your work to the public, for example by broadcasting (TV, radio), by email or on the internet
- publish your work
- perform your work
- adapt your work
Copyright protects the following categories of creative works:
| Artistic Works: paintings, drawings, engravings, photographs, installations, cartoons and graphic art, and craftwork | Dramatic Works: Choreography, Theatre plays and screenplays |
| Musical Works: Melodies, Tunes and compositions | Literary Works: short stories or novels, poems, song lyrics, scripts, letters or articles in a newspaper and reports |
| Sound Recordings: physical music releases (Vinyl, CDs, Tape) and digital recordings (streaming) | Broadcasts: television, radio, podcasts and film |
Learn about how copyrighted content is protected and used:
Click HERE for more information about Copyright.