Copyright Act of 1976
Source: Title 17, United States Code, Sections 101-810.
[Sections 106, 107, and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act are ofparticular interest to the projected user community of thisinformation. However, in order to have the convenience of access tothe complete act available it is provided here in its entirety.]
As used in this title, the following terms and their variant forms meanthe following:
An "anonymous work" is a work on the copies or phonorecords of which nonatural person is identified as author.
"Audiovisual works" are works that consist of a series of relatedimages which are intrinsically intended to be shown by the use ofmachines or devices such as projectors, viewers, or electronicequipment, together with accompanying sounds, if any, regardless of thenature of the material objects, such as films or tapes, in which theworks are embodied.
The "best edition" of a work is the edition, published in the United
States at any time before the date of deposit, that the Library of
Congress determines to be most suitable for its purposes.
A person's "children" are that person's immediate offspring, whetherlegitimate or not, and any children legally adopted by that person.
A "collective work" is a work, such as a periodical issue, anthology,or encyclopedia, in which a number of contributions, constitutingseparate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into acollective whole.
A "compilation" is a work formed by the collection and assembling ofpreexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, orarranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutesan original work of authorship. The term "compilation" includescollective works.
A "computer program" is a set of statements or instructions to be useddirectly or indirectly in a computer in order to bring about a certainresult.
"Copies" are material objects, other than phonorecords, in which a workis fixed by any method now known or later developed, and from which thework can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, eitherdirectly or with the aid of a machine or device. The term "copies"includes the material object, other than a phonorecord, in which thework is first fixed.
"Copyright owner," with respect to any one of the exclusive rightscomprised in a copyright, refers to the owner of that particular right.
A work is "created" when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for thefirst time; where a work is prepared over a period of time, the portionof it that has been fixed at any particular time constitutes the workas of that time, and where the work has been prepared in differentversions, each version constitutes a separate work.
A "derivative work" is a work based upon one or more preexisting works,such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization,fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, artreproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which awork may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting ofeditorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modificationswhich, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a"derivative work."
A "device," "machine," or "process" is one now known or later developed.
To "display" a work means to show a copy of it, either directly or bymeans of a film, slide, television image, or any other device orprocessor, in the case of a motion pic