What's the point of copyright?

Copyright gives a person ownership rights to what he or she creates. This could be a drawing, painting, novel, song, picture, etc. Copyright not only gives you the right to own the work, but also to reproduce the work, perform the work, distribute copies of the work, display the work publicly, and to create derivatives of the work. Anyone other than the owner of the work cannot use the work in those ways without permission from the owner. If they do use the work without the owner’s permission, they are infringing on the owner’s copyright. Someone other than the owner may legally use the owner’s work for the limited purposes of criticism, comment, news, reporting, education, scholarship, or research without infringing on the owner’s copyright protections. This rule of law is called the Fair Use Doctrine. Click here to learn how to determine if you've fairly used someone else's copyrighted work.