Vocab Term: Copyright

Definition: This involves the right of an author or authors to be identified for their work. Unless otherwise contractually stated, the sole distribution rights are with the author. Unless otherwise stipulated, anyone who takes work from another author without permission/attributes and claims it as their own, or they’ve distributed any work of which they’re not the author of – that individual or person(s) violated copyright law. In the United States this copyright protection occurs automatically with any work that’s created.

Source: Copyright is built into the U.S. Constitution. These are the exclusive rights that are enforced by the justice system: “…copyright (and intellectual property generally) is instilled in the Constitution’s Progress Clause, which grants Congress the power “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries” (Robertson 91).

Commentary: Except for a writing and Adobe InDesign examples on my LinkedIn profile and a published poem, most of my writing is not online. I guess a lot of my writing is on Canvas though. Anyway, I’ve been in the PCW program at CWU for two years now. I’m graduating this year! There are times where I’m somewhat concerned about my work being stolen because I want to submit my work to magazines, journals ect. It would be crushing to me if I discovered that my work was stolen or even if someone else claimed my work as their own. In the digital world we live in it’s so easy to have your work stolen. In many ways, I miss the years when the world was more analogue. There was less opportunity for someone to steal an author’s work.

Robertson, Benjamin. “Copyright” The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014.