CIU 111 (Week 5) - Why is it important to copyright your work/art?

Copyrighting is the protection and legal cover that looks after any creators work that is published under their name. Without copyright anyone can use the creators work. The original creator's copyright has a maximum amount of time it can last for before it has to be renewed. An example of a mistake with renewing copyright is with Google. On the 17th of August an ex Google employee found a flaw in Google's Copyrighting. He exposed the flaw, bought part of Google due to a misprint in their copyright contract. He originally bought the part of Google for $12 and he eventually sold it back to Google.The money he made went towards charity. the rest of the story is on CNBC.com*. Dave Upiracha, a man from India bought the Domain Google.com after finding out that google managers never claimed it. NBC have interviewed him https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypIW6EqVes8.

There are many different tiers of copyright, each give the creator a different amount of using range. For example, you can get 5 years to 100 years, to how ever long the creator is alive for.

Another example could be with Lego. The original creation of the Lego design is now 45 years old. The copyright has 55 years left. After Olé Christienson died he managed to put a lifetime copyright on his designs. Until the copyright ends the design is safe in their family. (https://www.lego.com/en-us/legal/legal-notice/fair-play), thats the contract in which other companies can see Lego stating the fair use of there design.

References

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/meps-back-change-in-copyright-law-which-news-publisher-say-will-help-them-take-on-google/

http://detoyz-shop.blogspot.ae/2013/11/real-vs-fake-lego-minifigures.html