1.+What+is+Copyright?

media type="custom" key="5742427"  Copyright is a right that protects the creative property of a person. It allows creators to stop others from copying and using their works without permission (Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft; MCEETYA, n.d.). It comes from the Copyright Act 1969 under Australian Law (Australian Copyright Council, 1994).
 * WHAT IS COPYRIGHT? **

**HOW DOES IT WORK? **  Once something is created and has been recorded, filmed or written down, the work is automatically copyrighted (Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft; MCEETYA, n.d.). In Australia, there is no government registration system for copyright (Australian Copyright Council, 1994). Some creators however put a copyright symbol © and the copyright owner’s name on their work. This informs the public that the work is copyrighted and prevents claim of innocent infringement. Innocent infringement is when the person who copied the work didn’t know the work was protected (Bellis, 2010). Copyright usually expires 70 years from the date the work is released (Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft; MCEETYA, n.d.). 

Copyright protects a range of works of creators like artists, writers, musicians and film makers. Such works include: · Images (painting, graphics, cartoons, illustrations, photographs) · Text (novels, textbooks, lyrics, articles, software) · Music (film scores, melodies, songs) · Sound recordings (MP3 files, DVDs, CDs) · Films and moving images (films, games, television programs, music videos) · Dramatic works (plays, choreography) (Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft; MCEETYA, n.d.).
 * WHAT DOES COPYRIGHT PROTECT? **

Copyright does not protect ideas, concepts, techniques and information e.g. copying an idea from a book is not considered infringement. Copyright doesn’t protect titles, slogans or people’s images however these coincide with other areas of law (Australian Copyright Council, 1994).
 * WHAT IS NOT PROTECTED? **