What is copyright protection? A copyright protects a literary, musical, dramatic, choreographic, pictoral or graphic, audiovisual or architectural work or a sound recording, from being reproduced without the permision of the copyright owner. The copyright in a work vests originally in the author(s) of the work. The author(s) may transfer the copyright to any other party if she(they) choose(s) to do so. Subject to certain limitations though, the owner of a copyright has the sole right to authorize reproduction of the work, creation of a work derived from the work, distribution of copies of the work or public performance or display of the work.

What may be copyrighted? In order to be copyrightable, a work must be

1. fixed in a tangible medium of expression and 2. original.

Copyrights do not protect ideas, procedures, processes, systems, methods of operation, concepts, principles, or discoveries: they only protect physical representations. Anything unrecorded is not copyrightable, in as much as it is not “fixed.”

What constitutes copyright infringement? Subject to certain defenses, it is copyright infringement for someone other than the author to do the following without the author’s permission:

1. copy or reproduce the work

2. create a new work derived from the original work (for example, by translating the work into a new language, by copying and distorting the image or by transferring the work into a new medium of expression)

3. sell or give away the work or a copy of the work, for the first time (but once the author has done so, the right to sell or give away the item is transferred to the new owner. This is known as the “first sale” doctrine: once a copyright owner has sold or given away the work or a copy of it, the recipient or purchaser may do as she pleases with what she posesses).

4. perform or display the work in public (this right does not apply to visual art) without permission from the copyright owner.

How long does copyright last? In the Jamaica, copyright generally lasts for a period of 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the author’s dies. If the music originates from outside the European Economic Area, the copyright lasts for as long as the music is protected by copyright in its country of origin, provided that the length of time does not exceed 70 years.