Existing U.S. Copyright Law Provides Some Guidance While the law does not always provide clear guidelines to rights and responsibilities even within the U.S., a familiarity with basic existing copyright principles should keep most network users on ethical grounds. Copyrights protect original works of authorship, including literary, musical, dramatic, graphic, audiovisual, and architectural works, and sound recordings. The law forbids unauthorized reproduction, distribution, performance, or display of works with copyrights. The general intent of the law is to protect the commercial value of a work. Having a copy of a work with a copyright does not mean that the holder also has the right to distribute, reproduce, perform, or display it.
Copyrights apply to both published and unpublished work.
Under the international Berne Convention on copyrights, which the U.S. signed in 1989, a copyright comes into effect from the moment a work is created and is fixed in some form of tangible expression. A copyright notice is not required for copyright protection. The only way a copyright can be invalidated is by explicit announcement by the author that copyright protections are waived. Complete international copyright protection does not exists. Works are subject to the laws of individual nations, although most nations have signed international agreements on copyrights.