Final answer:
Copyright is a legal form of protection for original creative works, granting the copyright owner exclusive rights to use and distribute the work. It covers a wide range of creative outputs but does not protect underlying ideas. The protection typically lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years.
Step-by-step explanation:
A copyright is a legal protection recognized by Canadian law that grants the creator, or author, of original creative works the exclusive rights to their use and distribution. This includes the right to copy, produce, or reproduce the work or a substantial portion of it in any form. The U.S. Copyright Office defines a copyright as a form of protection for 'original works of authorship' which encompasses literary, dramatic, musical, and other types of artistic and intellectual creations. No one else may reproduce, display, or perform a copyrighted work without explicit permission from the copyright owner. The duration of this protection typically extends for the life of the author plus 70 years, ensuring that the author's estate can continue to benefit from the work posthumously.
While patent law concerns inventions, copyright principally safeguards books, songs, art, and similar works. When a work is 'fixed' in a tangible medium, copyright protection in the U.S. automatically goes into effect from that moment. As such, the owner of a copyright holds the power to decide how to market, share, or reproduce their work. However, copyright does not protect the ideas behind the work but rather the expression of those ideas. For example, many artists can write songs about 'love', but only the copyright holder of a specific song, such as John Legend's 'All of Me', may legally produce, sell, or perform that particular work.