What does copyright protect?

As soon as you have made an original, created work, in a fixed and tangible form, it is protected by copyright laws. Let’s look at those words more closely.

• “Original” doesn’t mean that no one has ever done it before. It means you didn’t copy someone else’s work to create yours.
• “Fixed” means it’s not changing. It’s in a final form.
• “Tangible” means someone else can experience your work in some way, usually through seeing, reading or listening to it. In other words, you’ve taken an idea that was in your head, and turned it into something to share with the rest of the world.

Copyright law provides protection for various types of “works”. In Aotearoa, it doesn’t matter whether the work is physical (exists in real life) or digital (exists online). All work is protected.

The Copyright Act uses the term “author” to describe everyone who creates a work, not only people who write books.
Creative works usually fall into one of these categories:

• Literary works: This includes letters, emails, journal articles, novels, screenplays, poems and song lyrics. It also covers tables, data compilations, multimedia works and computer programmes
• Dramatic works: Think of dance, theatre, mime and film scripts
  Musical works: The actual written music, like scores, lead sheets and chord charts (not lyrics or sound recordings)
• Artistic works: This includes paintings, drawings, diagrams, maps, engravings, etchings, photographs, sculptures and architectural designs; everything in the visual arts category that is static (not moving, like a cartoon)
• Sound recordings: The recording of sounds themselves, (not written music or story)
• Films: The moving images in videos or DVDs (not the scripts, music and sounds)
• Communication works: Radio and TV broadcasts and internet transmissions, like podcasts and livestreams
• Typographical arrangements: The layout of a published edition of literary, dramatic or musical works.

As you can see, some works have multiple parts that get copyright protection.

• A children’s book has literary (the words), artistic (the illustrations) and typographical protection (the layout).
• A film will have protection in dramatic (the script) musical (the soundtrack score), sound recordings (the audible sounds and actual soundtrack) and film (the moving images) categories. 
• A book might contain several stories or poems by different authors. Each of these is protected by its own copyright. The layout of the book is also protected.
• A CD or music album could have several songs. Each song has a sound recording and lyrics, each with its own copyright.

What isn't protected by copyright?

Copyright protects the way ideas are expressed, not the ideas themselves. Let’s take an idea for a story about a dog roaming throughout the country, looking for its lost family. You and I can both write stories using that idea, but the way we express that idea will end up being different. My story starts in Taupō; yours starts in Wellington. My dog’s name is Bingo, yours is Bella. My dog’s family has four members, yours has five.

The way the idea is expressed through important features such as names and settings is original, and written in my own words and style. That’s what is protected.

So, two authors can independently create similar works based on the same idea without violating copyright, as long as they don’t copy from each other. Two artists could paint or photograph the same landscape, and as long as they did it without copying each other, both works will have copyright protection.

Some things are not protected by copyright, such as names, titles, single words and headlines, which are usually too short or ordinary to be considered “original”.
In addition, certain public documents like statutes, court judgments and official inquiry reports are not protected by copyright.

How long does copyright protection last?

In 2024 in Aotearoa, copyright for literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works lasts for your entire life, plus 50 years after you pass away. This means that even after you’re gone, your work remains protected for 50 more years, allowing your family or estate to benefit from your art and decide how it can be used.
After the 50 years, the work is considered to be “out of copyright” – sometimes known by the American term “public domain”. That means it is no longer protected by copyright law: anyone can copy, share or adapt your work in any way they choose.

For other works, like government publications, broadcasts, and films, the length of copyright may be different. These terms can change with international agreements, and copyright lengths can vary in other countries.

As long as you have an independently created artistic work, in physical or digital form, it is automatically protected by copyright, for your entire life plus another 50 years. After that, anyone can use it.