What is Copyright, Fair Use, Public Domain Essay

What is Copyright, Fair Use, Public Domain - Essay Example In the culture of music, copyright has the intention of promoting the creation of new works, since authors and pioneers are given full control of and benefit from them. Copyrights are territorial thus implying they cannot go beyond a specific state/nation unless that nation has entered into an international agreement. It is imperative to note that personally, as a copyright holder, I have to cater for the copyright enforcement. In this regard, the holders are required to look for legal representation, administrative and in some cases court costs. These costs which in most cases also involve time should be put into consideration when the evaluation of benefits of enforcing copyrights. Additionally, disputes regarding copyright are handled by an approach that is directed to the infringing party so that the matter is settled out of court. Fair use is a limitation as well as exception to the exclusive right that is granted to the author of any creative work by copyright law. The copyright law of the United States advocates that fair use is a doctrine that allows limited use of copyrighted work without necessarily getting permission from the holders of rights. Fair use includes commentary, criticism, teaching, research, news reporting, scholarship and archiving. Fair use provides for the legal, unlicensed citation or incorporating copyrighted material in a different work of another author and are evaluated according to four underlying factors; a) The purpose, nature and the intention of the use, b) The nature of the copyrighted work, c) The nature and the substantiality of the material used, and, d) the effect of use on the potential market for or value of the work. Fair use positively affects music culture since it promotes a level playing ground for all players in the music industry, and all players, whether rich or poor are protected by this law. Personally, the law of fair use will protect me as