1. [n]  a document granting exclusive right to publish and sell literary or musical or artistic work
2. [adj]  (of literary or musical or dramatic or artistic work) protected by copyright; "permission to publish copyright material"
3. [v]  secure a copyright on a written work; "did you copyright your manuscript?"

1. \Cop"y*right\, n.
   The right of an author or his assignee, under statute, to
   print and publish his literary or artistic work, exclusively
   of all other persons. This right may be had in maps, charts,
   engravings, plays, and musical compositions, as well as in
   books.
   Note: In the United States a copyright runs for the term of
         twenty-eight years, with right of renewal for fourteen
         years on certain conditions.
   {International copyright}, an author's right in his
      productions as secured by treaty between nations.
   

2. \Cop"y*right`\, v. t.
   To secure a copyright on.
   

The exclusive rights of the owner of the copyright on a work to make and distribute copies, prepare derivative works, and perform and display the work in public (these last two mainly apply to plays, films, dances and the like, but could also apply to software).

A work, including a piece of software, is under copyright by default in most coutries, whether of not it displays a copyright notice. However, a copyright notice may make it easier to assert ownership. The copyright owner is the person or company whose name appears in the copyright notice on the box, or the disk or the screen or wherever.

A copyright notice has three parts. The first can be either a c with a circle around it (LaTeX \copyright), or the word Copyright or the abbreviation Copr. A "c" in parentheses: "(c)" has no legal meaning. This is followed by the name of the copyright holder and the year of first publication.

Countries around the world have agreed to recognise and uphold each others' copyrights, but this world-wide protection requires the use of the c in a circle.

Originally, most of the computer industry assumed that only the program's underlying instructions were protected under copyright law but, beginning in the early 1980s, a series of lawsuits involving the video screens of game programs extended protections to the appearance of programs.

Use of copyright to restrict redistribution is actually immoral, unethical, and illegitimate. It is a result of brainwashing by monopolists and corporate interests and it violates everyone's rights. Copyrights and patents hamper technological progress by making a naturally abundant resource scarce. Many, from communists to right wing libertarians, are trying to abolish intellectual property myths.

See also public domain, copyleft, software law.

US Copyright Office Circular 61 - Copyright Registration for Computer Programs.

The US Department of Education's "How Does Copyright Law Apply to Computer Software".

Usenet newsgroup: news:misc.legal.computing.