Copyright Explained Simply, in 650 Words

A few days ago, I finished my five-video series going through the basics of copyright in simple terms! But then I wanted to simplify it further, so here we have it: a full run-through of the basics of copyright, in exactly 650 words (excluding this introduction, heh).

Disclaimer: this skips over a lot of the technicalities (even more than the video series) and makes some sweeping statements, but I like to think it’s a pretty complete picture of the core of copyright. You’re on your own if you’d like to know the details, but I hope this may be useful as a starting point of sorts. Finally, if you require legal advice, please do not rely on what some random page on the Internet has said—please consult a lawyer.

With that out of the way, here we go!


Copyright deals with creative things—“expressions of ideas”

Think about that song you’ve sang in the shower, or your Instagram post, or even a letter you’ve written to someone. These are “creative things”, which copyright cares about.

 
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But what is “creative” and what is not? Well, ideas are clearly not creative—when you get an idea in your head, you haven’t “created” anything in this world. For example, a plan to write a cheesy love song isn’t “creative”, because you haven’t “created” the cheesy love song yet.

However, once you “express” an idea—for example, once you actually write that cheesy love song—you have “created” something. Copyright cares about those expressions, and that’s why it is said that copyright “protects the expressions of ideas”. 

 
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Copyright treats creative things as “personal property”

Alright, so how does copyright “protect” expressions of ideas?

Let’s take a step back, and think about the “things” which you can hold in your hands—your phone, your wallet, so on and so forth. The law calls that stuff your “personal property”. And copyright treats creative things (like your song) as personal property (like your phone).

 
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One concept that follows is this. If someone takes your phone, you can say, “That phone is mine!”, and ask them to give it back. Same thing with your song: if someone copies it, you can say, “That song is mine!”, and ask them to give it back.

 
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This makes sense when we’re dealing with real things, like your phone—but how can you ask someone to “give back” your creative thing, like your song?

Copyright gives you rights over creative things, which you can enforce in court

The technical answer is that copyright gives you “rights” over your creative things, which you can “enforce” in court. This doesn’t seem to answer the question, but let’s break it down, and I assure you it’ll make sense.

Now, recall our example of someone taking your phone—let’s say you ask them nicely to return your phone, but they refuse. If that happens, you can “sue” them in court, and if you win the lawsuit, the court can force them to give your phone back. To win the lawsuit, you need to convince the court that you have a “right” over your phone—and you would have this right, because the law of personal property gives owners of things the right to prevent others from taking their stuff. This is how you can “enforce your right” to your phone in court.

 
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The same idea applies for your creative things. If you own the copyright to, let’s say, a song, you have the right to prevent others from copying your song. So if someone copies your song, you can enforce your copyright in court against them.

 
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If you win, there’s a few things a court can force them to do: for example, it can order them to stop making money off your work (a type of “injunction”), or get them to pay you for any losses you faced (known as “damages”).

Avoiding copyright troubles altogether with copyright licensing

If all this sounds thorny and complicated, that’s because it is. So you might think about how you can avoid these issues altogether. The most clear-cut way to do so is getting a license.

To grant someone a “license” is to grant them permission to do something. For example, you could grant someone permission to use your song in a remix. That way, when they copy your song to make the remix, you cannot sue them to enforce your copyright against them.

 
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Licenses are agreements like any other, which means that you can set the “terms and conditions” of the license in any way you like, as long as the other person agrees. These terms usually include some form of payment (a “royalty”), as well as other restrictions on how the creative thing can be used.

 
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Conclusion

So there we have it! A 650-word explanation of copyright.

If you would like to see all these concepts animated, to get a better feel of how they work, please do check out my video series. And do check out the site blog for some other simple explanations of copyright (and various other legal concepts) I’ve made.

Hope it was useful, and hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

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