What is protected by copyright?
Copyright applies to original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. These general categories cover a range of creations. For example:
- Literary works: books, pamphlets, computer programs and other works consisting of text;
- Dramatic works: films, plays, screenplays, scripts, etc;
- Musical works: musical compositions with or without words;
- Artistic works: paintings, drawings, maps, photographs, sculptures, plans, etc.
Copyright also applies to works which fall under "other subject-matter". The general categories are as follows:
- Performer's performance: Means any of the following when done by a performer:
- a performance of an artistic, dramatic or musical work, whether or not the work was previously fixed in any material form, and whether or not the work's term of copyright protection has expired;
- a recitation or reading of a literary work, whether or not the work's term of copyright protection has expired;
- an improvisation of a dramatic, musical or literary work, whether or not the improvised work is based on a pre-existing work.
- Sound recordings: Means a recording, fixed in any material form, consisting of sounds whether or not a performance of a work, but excludes any soundtrack of a cinematographic work where it accompanies the cinematographic work.
- Communication signals: Means radio waves transmitted through space without any artificial guide, for reception by the public.
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