Is Copyright copy protection?
Copyright is a form of legal
protection for people who produce writings,
images, music and films. It is a legal right to prevent others
from doing certain things (such as copying and making
available online) without permission.
Copyright and intellectual property
"Intellectual property" is a general term covering a number of
areas of law. These include copyright, trade marks and
patents.
What copyright protects
Things that can be protected by copyright include writing,
visual images, music, computer programs and films. Copyright protects the way an idea or information is
expressed, but not the idea or information itself.
How you get copyright
You do not need to publish your work, to put a copyright
notice on it, or to do anything else to be covered by
copyright — the protection is free and automatic. There are no
forms to fill in, and there are no fees to be paid. You do not
have to send your work to anyone else.
A work is protected automatically from the time it is first
written down or recorded in some way, provided it has resulted
from its creator’s skill and effort and is not simply copied
from another work. For example, as soon as a poem is written,
or a song is recorded, it is protected.
Copyright is international and works are protected in
most other countries.
Copyright may not be adequate protection
If one's work is original one can be assured that it is
protected by Copyright. However Copyright will not prevent
anyone from copying and using your work as their own except
where damage to reputation or punitive damages can be claimed.
In most cases the infringement won't be unknown and even if
detected it may be a risk expecting to at least reclaim the
court costs.
Everyone copies! You only have to have a look at the
advertising and entertainment industry to appreciate what they
consider fair game... and that's all and everything.
Advertising agents use other people's ideas and even borrow
the images to make over. And the audio visual industry, the
one screaming the loudest about the need to prevent
unauthorized distribution of copies is no different. Otherwise
we wouldn't have so many remakes of remakes.
Prevention is better than cure
For anyone publishing media digitally, especially via the
Internet, they are inviting plagiarism and the immediate
devaluation of their creativity. With digital content it can
be copied in numerous ways and reproduced in the best quality
(as good as the original) using almost any old computer and
printer. Preventing the copy of digital content is extremely
difficult and in most cases almost impossible. Not only is it
accessible in so many different ways thanks to way that
developers design their solutions to appease the bludging
majority, but most technologies used to prevent copying can or
have been reversed by other developers who are hell bent on
sabotaging everything simply because it exists.
So at best we can only hope to slow down the expert hackers
and prevent mass copying by the newbie masses. But at least
it's better than letting everyone have it for free and
immediately devaluing your livelihood.
Copy prevention
If you don't want it copied then don't make it easy. Don't
rely on their integrity... remove the temptation by making it
as difficult as possible to copy. Mind you some copy
prevention methods do work and in the right environments some
are unbeatable. The copy protection solutions presented on
this web site are the best for their technique/media.
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