Copyright begins at the moment the work is finished, and may be registered with the Copyright Office to permit the author to file suit in case of an infringement. Although unpublished and unregistered works are protected, no suit may be brought without prior registration. Copyright infringement occurs when a party other than the author or licensee attempts to exercise one of the exclusive rights of Copyright without permission. The guidelines for determining infringement are access to the original and substantial similarity to it. Motives for the allegedly infringing work are also considered, and educational use may be exempted under the Fair Use provision.
Infringement can be direct, vicarious, or contributory.
Under current law, copyrights last for the life of the author plus 70 years. Obscenity or unpleasantness does not bar a work from receiving copyright. The Act is open-ended to allow for coverage of works in new media, including computer software and multimedia. Compilations are copyrightable in the same manner-each individual work in the compilation retains its individual copyright. Copyright does not extend to ideas, procedures, processes, methods of operation, concepts, systems, principles, or discoveries.