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What does copyright protect?
Writing, music, still images, moving images, computer programs, recorded sounds.
Copyright protects the way ideas or information are described or expressed (for example, in a document or a drawing), not the ideas or information themselves.
Something is protected by copyright if it is:
- a form of expression covered by the Copyright Act,
- recorded or “fixed” (for example, written down or saved in a digital file), and
- the result of some skill and effort, and not merely copied from somewhere else.
It must also be first published in a country which is a party to an international copyright treaty, or made by a national of such a country. Most countries are a member of one or more copyright treaties, so it is extremely rare that a work first published overseas, or by an overseas creator, is not protected.
| form of expression | examples | more |
|---|---|---|
| words ('literary works' and some 'dramatic works') | novels, textbooks, newspaper articles, lyrics, poems, plays, recipes | |
| compilations ('literary works') | directories, phone books, databases | |
| computer code ('literary works') | computer programs, computer games | |
| music ('musical works') | pop songs, advertising jingles, some ringtones | |
| movement ('dramatic works') | dance, mime | |
| two-dimensional images & representations ('artistic works') | paintings, craft, photography, graphic design, buildings, logos, architectural plans, engineering drawings, maps, charts | |
| three-dimensional artistic works ('artistic works') | sculptures, handmade craftworks (such as glass works, jewellery), buildings | |
| moving images ('cinematograph films') | feature films, TV programs, TV advertisements, animated films, moving images in computer games, vodcasts | |
| recorded sounds ('sound recordings') | recorded musical performances, recorded interviews and oral histories, mp3 files, podcasts |
Other things that can be protected by copyright include:
- TV and radio broadcasts (separately from the broadcast content); and
- the typographical arrangement of a published document (separately from the published words).
A physical item can contain a number of different and separate copyrights. For example, a CD will usually contain a number of musical works, lyrics, and recordings of performances of the music and lyrics. Similarly, a DVD will usually contain moving images, recorded sounds on the soundtrack, a screenplay and music.