What do we mean by copyright?

When people create poems, stories, reviews, novels, biographies or other writings seen as intellectual property, it belongs to them and them only. The problem is how to protect such intellectual pursuits from those who might take advantage of such creative ventures for their own use without compensation to the original writer. That’s exactly where copyright laws come in.
This set of laws shields the authors from plagiarism and so from those who would appropriate some or all of the original work of an author as if it were their own. Copyright laws give the creator the right to use his/her works as they want to and this applies to cinema, applications and architecture as well as written material. This means the author can throw out, sell the content or allow certain publishing rights to others. Copyright laws give the author unique rights to income from his creative works. This protection permits authors to have the freedom to continuously create, aware that their projects are safeguarded under national and international copyright laws.
Not all issues come under copyright protection. You are unable to copyright a fact. Concepts, methods and systems also cannot be copyright protected. While facts and ideas can not, in and of themselves, be copyright, how they are presented can be copyrighted, if the presentation is original to the author.
As soon as an author writes a story or essay or anything else, that piece of writing is immediately under copyright. Absolutely no one has any legal right to use it without the approval of the author. Although, without registering the copyright, the author will have a more troublesome time validating ownership should plagiarism take place. Not registering a copyright also effects any financial compensation, which will be much less with an unregistered copyright.
While a registered copyright does not endure forever, it does protect the author’s interests. If the work was written after the laws changed in February 1, 1978, the protection lasts for the life of the writer plus 70 years. This grants his children or beneficiaries an opportunity to also profit from the copyrighted work. This copyright may not be renewed. Copyrights for works before 1978 varied depending on a number of elements. These copyrights can be renewed for 25 years with protections and are regulated under the 1909 copyright laws.
Once a copyright runs out, there is no more recourse for the author or heirs. At this point, the work comes into public domain. This means that the work can be printed, published or otherwise used for derivative works.

This article is based on US law.

Helpful links:

• JISC – plagiarism resources and advice from the Joint Information Systems Committee.
• http://www.plagiarismchecker.net/ – free plagiarism checking software and articles, resources and lesson plans on avoiding plagiarism.
• PlagiarismAdvice.org – JISC’s specific plagiarism advice website.