Copyright Law

Protects expression, not ideas.

• Relatively long duration. Life of the author plus 70 years in the U.S.
• Software is considered a literary work.
• [[Fair use]] is not considered infringement.
• Registration is not required. Ownership immediately vests in the author. But in the U.S., registration is a prerequisite for filing a legal claim of infringement.
• [[Joint authorship]] is an interesting doctrine that tries to distinguish an author receiving assistance versus the existence of a second author with shared legal ownership.
• Transfers must be in writing, but licenses may be oral, or even just implied.
• [[notice-and-takedown]] strikes an interesting balance and has stood the test of time in the U.S., having existed more or less unchanged since 1998.