Here's where you can get it, short and sweet, straight from an artist who knows the copyright ropes and knows how to put it into plain English. This important legislation helps protect your work on the Internet. The least you need to know to protect your work.
Copyrights only protect certain intellectual property.
What copyrights mean to you. What you need to do to get the protection you need. Your lifetime, plus 50 years, if the work was created after January 1, 1978. Work created before that has different rules. Certain things aren't protected.