The 6 Rights of All Artist, Authors, Influencers, and Media Companies

A copyright is a temporary monopoly or exclusive right granted to the creator of an original work. Essentially, for the duration of your life and seventy years thereafter, you and, at least initially, only you, have the six rights granted to you by federal law over an original work you created. These six rights are found in the Copyright Act, which is in Title 17 of the United States Code, under Section 106.

If you’re an artist, author, influencer, content creator, or other media business, understanding your rights under the Copyright Act is critical to your immediate and long-term success.

If you’re in one of these industries but aren’t well-versed in copyright law or don’t have a good understanding of your rights, don’t worry! This article is a great place to get started. There’s a cursory breakdown of the six rights:

1. The Reproduction Right

Listed in the Copyright Act as the right to “reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords.” This is the quintessential right in Copyright law, it’s what allows owners to make copies of the original work and what allows them to stop others from making copies of their original works without their permission.

2. The Derivative Right

This right is articulated in the Copyright Act as the right to “prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work.” A derivative work is a new work substantially based upon a pre-existing original work. An example of a derivative work would be a sequel, which uses the same characters as the original work but a new plot or narrative. However, less original works also qualify. For example, all of the following are examples of derivative works: a translation into another language, creating of a screen play based on the original work, abridging a work.

3. The Distribution Right

Found in the Copyright Act as the right “to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending.” As the text of the statute states, this right allows the owner to sell, rent, lease, or lend their original works. This right is what allows for license agreements, in which owners can set the terms under which others are allowed to use their works. This right is limited by what is called the First Sale Doctrine, which limits this right to the first sale of an original work. Later transfers are not governed by the Distribution Right.

An example to understand this doctrine, would be a VHS Tape of Movie (remember those?) being sold by a bootlegger versus at a garage sale. If a bootlegger sells a copy of said movie, they would be in violation of the Movie Company’s Distribution Right, even if they bought the VHS tape legally, because the bootlegger did not pay the Movie Company for the additional copies of the Movie they are selling. However, someone who purchased the VHS of the Movie and sells that VHS at a garage sale is protected by the First Sale Doctrine because they are not creating new copies of the Movie, they are transferring the individual copy they purchased. So, later sales of that VHS Tape are not governed by the Company’s Distribution Right.

4. The Public Performance Right

The Public Performance Right is listed as “in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and chorographical works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly.” As the statute says, this right only applies to certain works and not others. While literature, music, plays, dances, movies, and pantomimes are protected by this right, sound recordings pictures, graphics, and sculptures are not. To be performed “publicly” only requires that a substantial number of people outside of friends and family be gathered and not that the performance be open to the public.

5. The Display Right

The Display Right is stated as “in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly.” This is the right that covers pictures, graphics, and sculptures as well as the types of works protected by the Public Performance Right. This right is infringed by making the work available to the public, there is no requirement that anyone view the work, nor is there requirement that the infringer intended that others view the work.

6. The Transmission Right

The Transmission Right found in the Copyright Act as “in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.” This right covered the transmission of sound recordings through mediums like radio transmissions.

These Rights Matter, Tell TealAcre How to Help

These six rights were given to the creators of original works so they can legally control who has access to their creations and how they can use them. To properly run your business and earn a living you must know who to use and enforce them.

If you’re an artist, author, influencer, content creator, or other media business, understanding, taking the time to learn about copyrights can be the difference between being adequately compensated and the victim of career-stunting infringement.

If you’re unsure about how these rights apply in your situation, reach out to TealAcre. To contact us you can:

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