All About Copyright

What cannot be copyrighted?

According to what copyright is and what its protection covers (see the ‘What is Copyright’ and ‘What is protected by Copyright’ sections), works which are not enough original or creative and not expressed in a tangible form cannot be copyrighted. Accordingly, you cannot copyright names, titles, ideas, short phrases...

Who is the Copyright Owner?

Generally, the person or the collective who authored or created the work will exclusively own the work and is known as the ‘copyright owner’. If a work is produced by an employee the first owner normally is the employer or the company for which the individual works. Whereas freelance and commissioned work is owned...

What is the Berne Convention?
The territorial nature of copyright (see ‘Which Kind of Nature does the Copyright Protection have?’ section) has led to international attempts of harmonization in order to ensure some basic uniform copyright protection standards. Therefore, 176 countries have ratified the Berne Convention for the Protection of Liter...

Can Ideas Be Copyrighted?
It is important to note that copyright only protects original works of authorship. In other words, what is protected is the original expression of the idea, not the idea itself. For example, when you write a book, only the actual content of the book will be protected, not the idea behind it. In this way, someone else is...

What is the Purpose of Copyright?The main purpose of copyright is to encourage and promote the development of arts, culture, science and innovation by protecting copyright owners’ rights for their authorship works. At the same time, copyright facilitates access to knowledge once the authorship works are no longer covered by this kind of legal prote...

Why do we need Copyright?
In our daily lives, we regularly enjoy, consume and use authorship works since they can be sources of entertainment, education and profit. If you have an original idea or piece of creative work, this is a potential asset...