What are the copyright laws in the US?

In the United States, copyright laws protect original works of authorship. These laws provide exclusive rights to those authors, primarily through the Copyright Act of 1976. The rights granted by the Act include the exclusive right to reproduce the work, create derivative works, and publicly display and perform the work. The Copyright Act of 1976 states that authors have exclusive rights to reproduce, adapt, distribute, perform, and display their works. This means that only the author of the work can make copies, changes, or adaptations of the work, and only they can give permission for others to use the work. In addition, the author has the exclusive right to distribute copies to the public, perform the work publicly, and display the work. In order to have copyright protection, the work must be an original creation that is “fixed in a tangible form”, like in a book, computer file, or picture. It is important to note, however, that ideas cannot be protected by copyright law. Therefore, the expression of the idea must be protected instead. In Mississippi, the Mississippi Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2004 is designed to protect innovative businesses and ensure economic growth. The Act creates protections for trademarks, trade secrets, and proprietary information. In summary, copyright law in the United States protects original works of authorship and Mississippi has its own state-level protections for Intellectual Property. These laws protect businesses and empower authors to create and maintain their ideas.

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