Media Restrictions and Laws

Copyright law protects intellectual property works and the owners of those works have the exclusive right to authorize others to distribute, reproduce, perform, display, and recreate almost identical copies of the original work (King’s Christian School, n.d.). A person’s intellectual property is copyrighted automatically the moment the work is created and lasts for 70 years after the author’s death, even longer in cases of corporate ownership (King’s Christian School, n.d.). Once the copyright expires, the work is part of the public domain, meaning that anyone may use the work without obtaining permission.

To use copyrighted material, an individual needs to gain permission or purchase a license, use public domain or Creative Commons licensed material, or claim fair use to use excerpts of the copyrighted material without permission for reasons such as teaching. According to Title 17 of the US Code, section 107, allows for the fair use of limited parts of copyrighted material for limited purposes without the permission of the owner (U.S. Copyright Office, n.d.). Individuals who hold Creative Commons licenses allow the public limited access to their works, dependent on which of the 6 types of Creative Commons licenses the work is given (King’s Christian School, n.d.).