Copyright refers to a legal term that describes and determines the power that creators have over their artistic and literary works, such as books, music, paintings, sculptures, technical drawings, advertisements, computer programs, among others.

What is copyright?

Copyright is a set of principles that regulate the economic and moral rights that the law grants to the original creators of scientific, artistic and literary works. These people in turn are the only ones who can obtain various economic, intellectual and material benefits derived from its distribution.

In general, copyright seeks to protect the creativity, imagination and innovation of the creator of a musical composition, editing, painting, map, sculpture, photography, film, choreography, brand name, symbol, computer program, database and software, code, mailer, electronic equipment, blog post, and more.

It should be clarified that copyright protects the forms of expression but not the ideas themselves, that is to say that if you do not carry them out to produce a good or product, they will not be protected with this rule. In addition, originality is always taken into account, so you must be careful with third parties who seek to benefit through illegal copying, plagiarism or dissemination.

Copyright content

There are several rights that belong to the author, as well as to his heirs and to any third party who by assignment has acquired them. Mainly, it encompasses the power to use the works and to authorize their use or reproduction according to various conditions, for example:

• Moral Rights: are those that allow the author to obtain benefits and be recognized as the person who created the work. Therefore, these are not transferred, cannot be subject to seizure or complaint and are effective over time.

• Right of Disclosure: authors have the power to decide whether or not to publish their work and also in what form.

• Right of Paternity: the original author can demand recognition as the creator of the work.

• Right of Disclosure: a person has the option of disclosing a work under his real name, under a pseudonym or anonymously without renouncing his authorship.

• Right to Integrity: the power to prevent a person from making any alteration to the work that could harm the reputation and honor of the author.

• Right of Repentance: among the powers of the author is to withdraw the work from the market or modify it after its publication.

• Right of Reproduction: it is the power that an author has to receive financial compensation for the copies made of his work.

• Transformation Rights: the author’s right to authorize obtaining financial compensation for the alterations made to his work, as long as they do not threaten his prestige. For example, translations from one language to another.

What is the purpose of protecting copyright?

Rights are usually protected for a specified period, depending on the nationality of the creator and the work. In general, these will remain untouchable during the author’s life and from his death between 50 and 70 years in the most protectionist countries.

Copyright is very important, as it guarantees that other people do not manage alterations, plagiarism or carry out acts of piracy on an original work.

Protecting them is an essential component for promoting creativity, in addition, compensation and recognition encourage better results and even improve production.

Thanks to the constant improvement of Intellectual Property regulations, authors invest more constantly in the development and worldwide dissemination of their works, and contribute significantly to facilitating access to other people, in order to enrich culture and knowledIt is always prudent to remember that ignorance of the law does not exempt citizens from compliance, in whatever country they are in, since they are designed to maintain order and ensure the rights of all.