COPYRIGHT
A set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work.
Copyrights are concerned with the protection and exploitation of the expression of ideas in a tangible form (ie. to prevent unauthorized persons from copying the work).
To be protected as copyright, ideas have to be expressed in an original manner.
Copyright and related rights protect the rights of authors, performers, producers and broadcasters, and contribute to the cultural and economic development of nations. This protection fulfills a decisive role in articulating the contributions and rights of different stakeholders and the relation between them and the public.
The purpose of copyright and related rights is 3-fold:
- To encourage a dynamic creative culture, and
- To return value to creators, and
- To provide widespread, affordable access to content for the public.
Fair dealing for research or study
Exempted from copyright infringement are certain acts of ‘fair dealing’ in a copyright work for the purpose of research or study, including:
- the nature of the work or adaptation
- the possibility of obtaining the work or adaptation within a reasonable time at an ordinary commercial price
- the effect of the dealing upon the potential market for, or the value of, the work or adaptation
- where only a part of the work is copied, the amount and substantiality of that part compared to the whole work or adaptation.
Copyright protection for DNA sequence?
- Starting in the early 1980s, and ending in the very beginning of the 1990s, a number of scholarly commentators proposed that biotechnology works are proper subject matter for copyright protection.
Feist Publication, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340, 346 (1991)
- Distinction between creation and discovery: The first person to find and report a particular fact has not created the fact; he or she has merely discovered its existence... one who discovers a fact is not its “maker” or “originator.” The discoverer merely finds and records. Census takers, for example, do not “create” the population figures that emerge from their efforts; in a sense, they copy these figures from the world around them. The same is true of all facts - scientific, historical, biographical, and news of the day. They may not be copyrighted and are part of the public domain to every person.