So the government gives us, we creators, six exclusive rights.
And they have evolved over the years.
Exclusive right means the right to exclude other people from doing
anything with your copyright.
It's not exclusive means fancy or members only.
It means you can exclude everyone from doing certain things with your work.
The first right is the right to make a copy of your work.
And that can mean various things.
What that means, especially, is that no one else can copy it.
Only you can.
You have the right to exclude others from doing it.
The second right is fascinating.
It's the right to create derivative works.
In other words, if you write a song, you could
license that song for other purposes.
You can look at NWA and "Straight Outta Compton," which
is a big song from their album "Straight Outta Compton."
It became a movie, "Straight Outta Compton."
Derivatives are a real big deal.
And that second right of the six is really significant.
A third right is the right to perform it publicly.
Because until you've written it, until you can say so, it can't be performed.
You have the right to stop it from being performed.
That's usually kind of silly.
Why would you want to stop it?
Because when you get a public performance, you are paid for it.
You own the copyright.
There's a licensing worked out.
There are what's called PROs, Performance Rights Organizations that
exist to collect money for the use of your song,
for the performances of your song.
So publicly perform is a big deal.
Copyrights are sold.
Copyrights are bought.
The right to sell your song is also obviously important.
Michael Jackson was able to capture all the Beatles
copyrights for a period of years.
So a copyright can be valuable that way.
It is property.
And by the way, this overall thing--
copyright is a part of what's called intellectual property--
so the right to publicly perform, to sell,
and otherwise to publicly display.
How do you display music?
What you display, usually, are lyrics.
And lyrics can be very significant income-- lyrics on shirts.
If you ever look at a site like Etsy.com,
you'll find people who have taken lyrics and just
gone ahead and made t-shirts or woven things or etched them into metal.
There's all kinds of fancy things that have gone on.
Unfortunately, a lot of times, these are done illegally.
Someone will think, well, why can't I take a song by Led Zeppelin,
take some of the lyrics, and make it into some embroidery or some metalwork?
Why couldn't I be inspired by a Rolling Stones song and make a statue?
Again, those are derivatives.
And you wouldn't have that right.
But that's important for the original creator, the right to display.
The newest right is the right you have with respect to your recording.
If you have a sound recording, you can prevent anyone
from a digital audio transmission doing one of those of your recording.
You can say no to Spotify, Pandora, Deezer, Slacker, Apple Music, Tidal,
and so forth.
They cannot just play your sound recording.
That's the newest right.
Those are the six rights--
again, the right to make a copy, perform publicly, display it publicly, sell it,
make a derivative, and the digital audio transmission.
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