Explanation:

Copyright (or author’s right) is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works. Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.

Works commonly protected by copyright throughout the world include:

• literary works such as novels, poems, plays, reference works, newspaper articles;

• computer programs, databases;

• films, musical compositions, and choreography;

• artistic works such as paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculpture;

• architecture; and

• Advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.

Copyright protection extends only to expressions, and not to ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such. Copyright may or may not be available for a number of objects such as titles, slogans, or logos, depending on whether they contain sufficient authorship.

There are two types of rights under copyright:

• economic rights, which allow the rights owner to derive financial reward from the use of his works by others; and

• moral rights, which protect the non-economic interests of the author.

Economic rights have a time limit, which can vary according to national law. In those countries which are members of the Berne Convention, the time limit should be equal to or longer than 50 years after the creator’s death. Longer periods of protection may however be provided at the national level.