Copyright is a protection that covers published and unpublished literary, scientific and artistic works, whatever the form of expression, provided such works are fixed in a tangible or material form. This means that if you can see it, hear it and/or touch it - it may be protected. If it is an essay, if it is a play, if it is a song, if it is a funky original dance move, if it is a photograph, HTML coding or a computer graphic that can be set on paper, recorded on tape or saved to a hard drive, it may be protected. Copyright laws grant the creator the exclusive right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform and display the work publicly. Exclusive means only the creator of such work, not anybody who has access to it and decides to grab it. Such work are:-

• Literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works.
• Cinematograph film and Sound recordings.
  

Copyright protection begins when any of the above described work is actually created and fixed in a tangible form.

For example, my brother is a musician and he lives in the United States. When he writes new lyrics, he prints them out on paper, signs his name at the bottom with the Copyright © symbol to show that he is the author, places it in an envelope and mails it to himself without opening it. His copyright begins at the moment he puts his idea in a tangible form by printing the lyrics out on paper. He creates proof when he mails it to himself - the postmark establishes the date of creation. He then registers his copyright with the The Copyright Act, 1957 which is a requirement in order to sue for monetary damages should a violation of his copyright arise. However, if somebody copies and redistributes his lyrics without permission before his copyright is registered, he still has the right to assert a copyright claim as the true author.

Copyright owners have the exclusive rights to do or authorize the doing of any of the following in respect of a work

• to issue copies of the work to the public not being copies already in publication;
• to perform the work in public, or communicate it to the public;
• to make any translation or adaptation of the work;
• to sell or give on hire, or offer for sale or hire a copy (in case of a computer programme regardless of whether such copy has been sold or given on hire on earlier occasions;
• Copyright confers a number of rights, some or all of which can be granted to others either exclusively or non-exclusively;
• To reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or recordings.
• To prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
• To distribute copies or recordings of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
• To perform the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, motion pictures and other audiovisual works; and
• To display the copyrighted work publicly, 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.
  

The registration of the Copyright may be done by filing an application in the prescribed from in FORM-IV Application for Registration of Copyright along with copier of the work in triplicate i.e. Statement of Particulars & Statement of Further Particulars. If copyright in case case of trademark, than search certificate has to be attached from the trademark registry & thereafter, application of copyright can be filed in the copyright office.

It is not necessary under the Indian Copyright Act to register with the Copyright Office to get copyright protection. But Registration of copyright is helpful in an infringement suit whether civil or criminal. Copies of any entries therein, or extracts from the register which are certified by the Registrar of copyrights and with the seal of the copyright office, are admissible as evidence in all courts without proof or production of the original.

The kinds of works covered by copyright include: literary works such as novels,poems,plays,reference works, newspapers and computer programmes, databases, films, musical compostions and choreography; artistic works such as paintings,drawings,photographs and sculpture, architecture and advertisements,maps,industrial and engineering drawings.

• If published within the life time of the author of a literary work the term is for the life time of the author plus 60 years.
• For cinematographic films, records, photographs, posthumous publication, anonymous publication, works of government and international agencies the term is 60 years from the beginning, of the calendar year following the year in which the work was published.
• For broadcasting the term is 25 years from the beginning of the calendar year following the year, in which the broadcast was made