copyright

[kop-ee-rahyt]

noun

1. the exclusive right to make copies, license, and otherwise exploit a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video, etc.: works granted such right by law on or after January 1, 1978, are protected for the lifetime of an author or creator and for a period of 70 years after their death.

adjective

1. of or relating to copyrights.

2. Also copyrighted. protected by copyright.

verb (used with object)

1. to secure a copyright on.

copyright

¹

/ ˈkɒpɪˌraɪt /

noun

1. (c). the exclusive right to produce copies and to control an original literary, musical, or artistic work, granted by law for a specified number of years (in Britain, usually 70 years from the death of the author, composer, etc, or from the date of publication if later)

adjective

1. (of a work, etc) subject to or controlled by copyright

verb

1. (tr) to take out a copyright on

©

²

symbol

1. copyright

copyright

¹

1. The legal protection given to published works, forbidding anyone but the author from publishing or selling them. An author can transfer the copyright to another person or corporation, such as a publishing company.

copyright

²

1. A grant of an exclusive right to produce or sell a book, motion picture, work of art, musical composition, software, or similar product during a specified period of time.

The symbol (see also symbol) for copyright is ©.

Other Word Forms

• copyrightable adjective
• copyrighter noun
• uncopyrighted adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of copyright¹

First recorded in 1725–35; copy + right

Example Sentences

Back at South Park Elementary, as the battle of disturbing AI-generated videos heats up, Kyle questions how creating that kind of content, especially with copyrighted characters, is legal.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The Viacom board felt that YouTube was a copyright infringement machine.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

A Danish man has been convicted of sharing nude scenes from copyrighted films and TV series on the social media site Reddit.

Read more on BBC

"Both the memorisation in the language models and the reproduction of the song lyrics in the chatbot's outputs constitute infringements of copyright law," the court ruled.

Read more on Barron's

By the 1960s, Disney had bought the rights for the character, later - in 2001 - paying approximately £239m to secure ownership until the copyright expires next year.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• cartel 
• holding 
• ownership 
• patent 
• trust