In copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major copyrightable elements of a first, previously created original work. The derivative work becomes a second, separate work independent from the first. The transformation, modification or adaptation of the work must be substantial and bear its author's personality sufficiently to be original and thus protected by copyright. Translations, cinematic adaptations and musical arrangements are common types of derivative works.
A work can be the source to many different types of derivative works that differ in type from the original. In this illustration a comic book is the source to for example merchandise, a video game, a magazine and a film.
Marcel Duchamp's 1919 piece L.H.O.O.Q., a derivative work based on the Mona Lisa.
Artists copying the "Mona Lisa". The original picture is in the public domain, but both the derivative work (the copy of the picture) and this photograph would attract their own copyright. The artists and photographer were working for the copyright holder, who has released the rights under a "CC BY-SA 2.0" license.
In U.S. law, this derivative work of a chest radiograph (which is in the Public Domain) is copyrightable because of the additional graphics. Yet the chest radiograph component of the work is still in the Public Domain.
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives the creator of an original work, or another right holder, the exclusive and legally secured right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself. A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.
The Statute of Anne (the Copyright Act 1709) came into force in 1710.
The Pirate Publisher—An International Burlesque that has the Longest Run on Record, from Puck, 1886, satirizes the then-existing situation where a publisher could profit by simply copying newly published works from one country, and publishing them in another, and vice versa.
A copyright symbol embossed on a piece of paper
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