Copyright and registration

Copyright is the legal foundation of every creative business. It gives the owner of an original work a bundle of exclusive rights: to reproduce it, to distribute copies, to adapt it, to perform or communicate it to the public and, in the digital world, to make it available online. Anyone who wants to do those things with the work needs the owner's permission unless an exception applies. This lesson explains what copyright protects, how long it lasts and how protection arises.

In the United States, copyright is governed by the federal Copyright Act of 1976, as amended. Protection arises automatically when an original work is fixed in a tangible medium. Registration with the US Copyright Office is optional for protection but has major practical consequences: for American works, you must register before suing for infringement, and timely registration unlocks statutory damages and attorney's fees.

What copyright protects

Copyright protects original expression. Original means the work was created by the author rather than copied, and involves some creative choice; it does not have to be novel, artistic or good. Expression means the particular way an idea is expressed, not the idea itself. Facts, ideas, methods, systems, short phrases, titles and names are not protected by copyright, although some may be protected in other ways, such as titles by trademark law.

The United States Supreme Court set the American standard in Feist Publications v Rural Telephone Service (1991): a work needs independent creation and a modicum of creativity. A telephone directory listing names in alphabetical order did not qualify, but most photographs, films, scripts and songs easily do.

For image makers, the important categories are photographs, films and other audiovisual works, music and sound recordings, scripts and other literary works, artistic works such as paintings, drawings, sculptures and graphic designs, and architectural works. Each may appear in your work, and each may have a different owner.

The idea and expression line

The line between an idea and its expression is the most important and the most argued line in copyright. Two photographers can photograph the same landmark from the same public spot at sunset without infringing each other, because the idea and the scene belong to no one. But if the second photographer deliberately recreates the first photographer's distinctive choices of angle, lens, lighting, pose, timing and processing, a court may find that the expression was copied.

Courts look at what was copied, not just whether the results look similar. Similarity in elements that are unprotected, such as facts, common settings, stock poses or natural features, does not count. Similarity in protected creative choices does. For filmmakers, the same principle applies to stories: a plot about two rival families is free; a detailed sequence of specific scenes, characters and dialogue may not be.

Rights in a photograph

A photographer's choices give the photograph its originality: the subject, the moment, the composition, the angle, the lens and the light, the posing and direction of people, the timing and the processing. That is why nearly every photograph is protected, even a casual snapshot. The degree of creativity affects how much protection the photograph gets: a highly staged image protects many choices, while a simple record photograph protects little beyond its exact copy.

The photographer is the author and first owner of a photograph unless it is a work made for hire, which happens when the photographer is an employee acting in the course of employment, or, for certain categories of commissioned works, when there is a signed written agreement saying so. Commissioning a photograph does not by itself transfer copyright. Lesson 3 covers ownership in more detail.

Rights in a film

A film combines many works: the screenplay, the score, the recordings, the production design, the cinematography and the editing. The finished film is itself protected as a work. Most of the contributors transfer their rights to the production company through employment, contracts and union agreements, so that one owner controls the film and can sell it. Without that consolidation, distributors and insurers will not take the film, because any contributor could block its exploitation.

The Copyright Act protects motion pictures and other audiovisual works. Contributions to a motion picture are one of the categories that can be works made for hire if the contributor signs a written agreement, which is why crew deal memos and writer agreements usually contain work-for-hire language. Guild agreements with the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA set minimum terms and residuals.

How long copyright lasts

Copyright does not last forever. When it ends, the work enters the public domain and anyone can use it without permission. Knowing whether a work is still protected is one of the most useful practical skills in clearance.

For works created on or after 1 January 1978, American copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. For works made for hire, anonymous works and pseudonymous works, it lasts 95 years from first publication or 120 years from creation, whichever ends first. Terms run to the end of the calendar year.

Older works follow older rules. Works published before 1978 could be protected for up to 95 years from publication if the required formalities and renewals were met. As of 1 January 2026, works published in the United States in 1930 or earlier are in the public domain, and each new year adds another year of works; sound recordings follow a separate schedule under the Music Modernization Act, and recordings from 1925 entered the public domain on 1 January 2026.

def public_domain_year(death_year, years_after=70):
    # protection runs to the end of the calendar year, so the work is free on 1 January of the next year
    return death_year + years_after + 1

for name, died in [("Photographer A", 1968), ("Photographer B", 1975), ("Painter C", 2001)]:
    print(name, "died", died, "-> free from 1 January", public_domain_year(died))

Photographer A died 1968 -> free from 1 January 2039
Photographer B died 1975 -> free from 1 January 2046
Painter C died 2001 -> free from 1 January 2072

The code applies only the basic life plus 70 rule. It cannot account for transitional rules, works made for hire, unknown authors, renewals or the Canadian rule that kept works by authors who died in 1971 or earlier in the public domain. Photographer A, who died in 1968, is already free in Canada because the old term had expired before 2022, even though the simple rule would say 2039. Treat any calculation as a starting point for a proper check.

The public domain is not always simple

A public domain work can still raise issues. A new translation, edition, restoration, arrangement or photograph of a public domain work may have its own copyright in the new contribution. A recording of a public domain symphony is protected as a sound recording. A museum may control access to a painting and require you to follow its terms of entry, even if the painting's copyright has expired. And a work can be in the public domain in one country and protected in another, because terms differ.

In the United States, a federal court held in Bridgeman Art Library v Corel (1999) that exact photographic copies of public domain paintings are not original, and many museums now release such images openly. Courts outside New York are not bound by that decision, so producers still check the source's terms.

Registration and notice

Copyright arises without registration in both countries, and a copyright notice, such as the © symbol with the year and owner's name, is no longer required. Using a notice is still good practice because it tells the public who claims ownership and makes it harder for an infringer to claim innocence.

American registration requires an application, a filing fee and a copy of the work, and the Copyright Office examines it. As of October 2026, the online fee was 45 dollars for a single work by a single author and 65 dollars for a standard application, with increases scheduled from mid-November 2026 (to 55 and 85 dollars under the proposed schedule), so check the current fee table before filing.

Registration matters because of three rules. For a United States work, you must have a registration decision before you can sue for infringement (the Supreme Court confirmed in Fourth Estate v Wall-Street.com in 2019 that an application alone is not enough). Statutory damages and attorney's fees are available only if the work was registered before the infringement began or within three months of first publication. And registration within five years of publication is evidence of validity. Photographers can register groups of published or unpublished photographs at once.

Neighboring rights and related rights

Some rights protect contributions that are not traditional works. Performers have rights in their performances, record producers have rights in sound recordings, and broadcasters have rights in their signals. Image makers meet these rights whenever they use recorded music or film a performance.

In the United States, sound recordings are protected by copyright, and performers' rights arise mainly through copyright, contracts, union agreements and state laws. Federal law also prohibits unauthorized recording of live musical performances.

Practical checklist

Before using any third-party material, ask five questions. Is it protected by copyright, or is it an idea, fact or public domain work? Who is the author, and who owns the rights now? Is the use you plan within an exception? If not, what permission do you need, for which media, territory and term? And how will you document the answer? The next lessons answer each of these in turn.