Basics: Limitations Temporal Copyright protection is limited in time. Many countries have adopted a term of protection that starts at the time of the creation of the work and ends 50 years (in some cases 70 years) after the death of the author. Under some national laws exist exceptions either for certain kinds of creations or for certain uses. After the protection has expired works pass into the public domain. In recent years a tendency towards the lengthening of the term of protection has emerged. Geographic The owner of a copyrighted work is protected against acts restricted by copyright under the law of a certain country. To gain protection against such acts in other countries he must refer to the respective national legislation. If both countries are members of one of the international conventions on copyright, the practical problems arising from this geographical limitation are eased. Non-Material Works In some countries works that are not fixed in some material form are excluded from copyright protection. Also under certain national legislations, the texts of laws and decisions of courts and administrative bodies cannot be copyrighted (which is possible in several countries; then the government is the owner of the copyright in such works and can exercise his rights in accordance with the public interest).

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Legal Protection: European Union Within the EU's goal of establishing a European single market also intellectual property rights are of significance. Therefore the European Commission aims at the harmonization of the respective national laws of the EU member states and for a generally more effective protection of intellectual property on an international level. Over the years it has adopted a variety of Conventions and Directives concerned with different aspects of the protection of industrial property as well as copyright and neighboring rights. An overview of EU activities relating to intellectual property protection is available on the website of the European Commission (DG Internal Market): http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/intprop/intprop/index.htm

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Intellectual property Intellectual property, very generally, relates to the output that result from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields. Traditionally intellectual property is divided into two branches: 1) industrial property (inventions, marks, industrial designs, unfair competition and geographical indications), and 2) copyright. The protection of intellectual property is guaranteed through a variety of laws, which grant the creators of intellectual goods, and services certain time-limited rights to control the use made of their products.

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Copyright management information Copyright management information refers to information which identifies a work, the author of a work, the owner of any right in a work, or information about the terms and conditions of the use of a work, and any numbers or codes that represent such information, when any of these items of information are attached to a copy of a work or appear in connection with the communication of a work to the public.

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Moral rights Authors of copyrighted works (besides economic rights) enjoy moral rights on the basis of which they have the right to claim their authorship and require that their names be indicated on the copies of the work and in connection with other uses thereof. Moral rights are generally inalienable and remain with the creator even after he has transferred his economic rights, although the author may waive their exercise.

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