© OPYRIGHT BASICS
Celebrating its 21st anniversary on 26 April 2021, World Intellectual Property Day recognises the impact intellectual properties have on our day-to-day lives. As writers, many of us wouldn’t have a writing business if it wasn’t for copyright, because it’s this intellectual property that enables us to generate an income from our creativity.
Therefore, if we want to make the most of our writing business, we should get to grips with the basics of copyright.
What is copyright?
Copyright is a form of ownership protection. Its aim is to protect the creator of a piece of work from having their work copied or reproduced without their permission. Whenever you create something original, such as an article, poem, letter, short story, radio play, novel, non-fiction book, screenplay or photograph, you own the copyright in that creation. Nobody should use it without your permission.
For something to be protected by copyright, it needs to be the original work of the creator. In