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  • copyright
    copyright
    noun
    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.
  • ©
    ©
    symbol
    copyright
Synonyms

copyright

American  
[kop-ee-rahyt] / ˈkɒp iˌraɪt /

noun

  • copyrights
    plural
  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)

  • copyrights,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • copyrighted,
    past participle,  past
  • copyrighting
    present participle
  1. to secure a copyright on.

copyright 1 British  
/ 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)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

adjective

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (tr) to take out a copyright on

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
© 2 British  

symbol

  1. copyright

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

copyright 1 Cultural  
  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 Cultural  
  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.


Discover More

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

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of copyright

First recorded in 1725–35; copy + right

Explanation

A copyright is a document that gives the ownership rights over artistic work, like songs or stories. If you don't get a copyright for your brilliant new novel, someone could adapt it into a movie without paying you a dime. Copyright means exactly what it sounds like: the right to make copies of something. If you copyright a song, a singer will to have to pay you to record it. Usually, copyright only lasts for a certain number of years. In the U.S. when a book or song has had a copyright for more than 75 years, that expires and it becomes "public domain," which means nobody owns the rights to it anymore.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing copyright

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

"In many countries copyright and data protection laws are not being adequately adapted" to protect performers from AI clones, the International Federation of Actors said last year.

From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026

And in December 2025, Europe's highest court ruled everyday commercial products can hold copyright if they represent creative design choices, a decision which Birkenstock said was relevant to its "iconic" sandals.

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

Michelle Lewis, a songwriter and the co-founder and chief executive of the nonprofit Songwriters of North America, said the composition side of that copyright split is often the harder one to defend.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026

The tech companies have argued that their actions constituted “fair use,” which allows for some copyright material to be used without explicit permission, and that their use of the material was ultimately transformative.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

This idea long precedes the legal claim to authorial copyright, which did not exist in British law until 1710, and was established later elsewhere.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Chinese corporate registry data shows the company owns copyrights to software that cybersecurity experts say could enable the company to do what it promises.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

And celebrities with valuable intellectual property rights, such as copyrights from the Reiners’ many film and television properties, tend to establish trusts.

From Salon ● Dec. 25, 2025

The deal comes amid reports Disney lawyers sent Google a cease-and-desist letter on Wednesday accusing the tech firm of infringing its copyrights "on a massive scale".

From BBC ● Dec. 11, 2025

They alleged that Cox’s subscribers infringed their copyrights in sound recordings and musical compositions by copying and distributing them via BitTorrent and other networks.

From Slate ● Nov. 28, 2025

The answer may lie in the long struggle to get the copyrights back from Fabyan.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield

But Olly - who has dealt with these before when he has mistakenly posted copyrighted material - says they are usually easy to deal with, and "you can easily tell the difference".

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026

In May, multiple publishers, including Hachette, Cengage, Elsevier and Turow, sued Meta in a New York court for allegedly stealing copyrighted content.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

The lawsuit filed Monday focuses on how AI products use and compensate for artists’ name, image and likeness—rather than the copyrighted music itself.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

The agreement comes as some studios have expressed concerns about AI models training on their copyrighted material without permission or compensation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026

It was copyrighted 1972 by the Esso company.

From "Paper Towns" by John Green

On the other hand, that can also be an advantage, said a 30-year-old pilot who goes by the name Makarena and worked in copyrighting before the war.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2023

Senior manager of LHI Sonia Mora said the county is in the process of copyrighting Abuelina and her family members to ensure they are not used for commercial purposes.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 8, 2021

Some counterfeiters are going as far as to claim Orwell’s classics as their own property, copyrighting them with their own names.

From New York Times ● Aug. 19, 2019

But copyrighting the software for an electronic transmission system is easy, and it gives companies a huge advantage in locking out third-party repair shops.

From The Verge ● Apr. 24, 2015

With these in hand and with information from the selling department as to the day when the book is to be published, the clerk in charge will then take the first step toward copyrighting it.

From The Building of a Book A Series of Practical Articles Written by Experts in the Various Departments of Book Making and Distributing by Frederick H. Hitchcock

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