Over the years I have heard many things from many different people about copyrights. But being the kind of guy that doesn't trust anyone, I decided to do my own research. I've come to be rather familiar with the totalitarian nature of copyright. So real fast I'm going to cover a few big points I've heard over the years about copyright.

I'm not making any money off it, so it's okay to copy it.

This is probably the most common misconception about copyright. Remember, copyright is designed to protect intellectual property, much like the burglary laws are designed to protect your physical property. Using this logic, you could say that stealing a candy bar is okay because you didn't sell it back off. Obviously it's wrong with the candy bar, and it's still wrong with copyright. Just as a candy bar provides you with enjoyment and nourishment, the copyrighted work provides you with some benefit. This benefit is where the stealing occurs. So by duplicating the work and giving it to your friend, you are effectively allowing them to gain the benefit from the work without compensating the author.

UPDATE: I think I've figured out the origin of this one. The law is written such that if you don't sell anything you have to copy a certain amount of stuff before it's a criminal act (It's ALWAYS punishable by civil law,) but if you sell it, it is immediately a felony.

You can't buy it in the US, so it's okay to bring it into the US as an import and copy it here.

Nope. Under US copyright law, intellectual property not produced, sold, or copyrighted explicitly in the US is still protected under US copyright if the work is copyrighted (explicitly or implicitly) in the country of origin. Common things that fall under a violation of the law are fan subs and fan dubs.

Correction: Only works produced in treaty countries are protected. However, unless you have some really interesting Cuban recordings, it's pretty safe to say that it is protected by copyright law.

I changed the work so now it's different, therefore the copyright no longer applies.

Sorry, no matter how artistic you where with your modification of the work, it is still copyrighted, The new work you have created is considered a "derivative work" and the original copyright owner has the right to control the production of derivative works. Now if you had permission, then maybe, but most authors prefer to retain rights over the copyright of the derivative works as well. This includes the MEGA popular fan work community. Most corporations are willing to cut the fans a little slack as long as they don't use words like officially sanctioned or endorsed and there is no profit made from the work. However, it's still illegal, and they're only one step away from having your fan site shut down. Also, if you give away too much information (too many screen shots, sound clips, etc) they may also shut you down because you're diluting the value of their work significantly. There are a couple of special cases to this rule however. The fair use clauses allow for reviews to be written as long as they don't dilute the value of the work. This is a touchy subject, and it's best to just ask for permission first. The second exception is parody. And it has to be true parody. If it's too close to the original work, it will dilute the copyright and will then be in violation. It's best just to ask for permission.

The work is too old, it's copyright has expired and the work is now in the public domain.

It's true, copyrights do expire. However, unless we're talking the classic works of a 19th century author, the odds are very good that the copyright is still valid. Copyrights last 70 years longer than the death of the copyright holder. This means that, for example, even if Christopher didn't hold the Lord of the Rings copyrights, the LotR books are still technically protected, and you can get into massive trouble for messing with it. Plus, since Christopher Tolken still holds the copyright, he'd probably sue you anyway (Not that Christopher is a bad guy, but that's the way the system works)

Copyrights protect ideas.

Again, we come to a common error. Copyrights are designed to protect documents, images, and phonorecordings (This includes recordings of music, speeches, etc.) However, the actual idea on the paper is not protected. For example, if you come up with a new kind of safety pin, and draw a sketch of it, you can copyright the sketch, but if someone where actually to build the safety pin from the sketch and market it, you would have no recourse, because copyright provides no protection for ideas. You could patent your safety pin (because its is a device or procedure) but patents are a lot less stringent, alot more expensive, and have a rather short life span (As compared to copy right) that begins on the date that you submit the APPLICATION o.O

Correction: Ok... So that's not perfectly true. Copyright does protect one type of idea: Ship hulls. By a fluke in the copyright law (and most likely an oversight of the comittee reviewing the law when it was preposed,) the ideas for a ship hull "plug" are officially protected under copyright law. However, not too many things fall under the "plug" category, and as such, it's usually safe to say copyright does not protect ideas.

Works that haven't been explicitly copyrighted are public domain.

Copyright law protects ALL intellectual property, not just the stuff that has been registered. However, it is extremely difficult to defend an unregistered work in court, so almost everything is registered as soon as possible by most people. But if push comes to shove, a company will defend an unregistered work.

Ok, so copyright law is fascist. What CAN I do with a copyrighted work?

Well... To be perfectly honest, there is only one thing you can do without worry: what the copyright holder has licensed you to do. For phonorecordings, that is usually only small personal performances, like you listening to it with your CD player or home stereo. For software, the exact details are usually explicitly listed when you install the software. For all other uses, it's pretty simple, you can't do anything without permission of the author. There is a special clause called Fair Use, but Fair Use is EXTREMELY vague, and it's exact interpretation is only truly defined in court precedent. As such, you have two choices if you want to exploit fair use, hire a copyright lawyer, or don't use the work at all. So my best advice is to ask the author. Often, especially in regards to fan works, the author of a copyrighted work is very likely to cooperate.

If you want to read copyright law for yourself, you can access it directly at www.copyright.gov.

Well, that's all I have for now. Laterz!