The Sourcery: CopyrightMyths

Thought I'd start a page on copyrights and licenses as it appears to be a commonly misunderstood topic, thus the title.

The first order of reading has got to be Brad Templeton's [Copyright Myth's Explained].

A good introduction to copyright law is [Copyright Basics] at IP Watchdog.

[The US Copyright Office] of course contains the current law in the US.

[Fan Fiction, Novels, Copyright, and Ethics] by Michela Ecks will probably cause some confusion, but nevertheless should give one an idea as to the broad range of policies and opinions of what literary authors will tolerate. Buried within this article was a link to [Writers University Database] which contains a list of contemporary authors and their policies on fan fiction if known.

Intellectual property protection comes in a number of flavors.

There is copyright law as explained above which protects the tangible expressions of an artist, musician, writer or programmer.

There is patent law which protects systems, processes and ideas.

There is trademark law which protects service and trade marks, which are images, words, slogans or phrases associated with a business.

There is contract law which involves the legal provisions for licenses and licensing intellectual property, and also the protection of trade secrets through contracts and non-disclosure agreements.