The Copyright Act of 1976 is a United States federal law that governs the protection of original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and other intellectual works. It grants authors exclusive rights to their works, including the right to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, and
The Copyright Act of 1976 is a United States copyright law and remains the primary basis of copyright law in the United States, as amended by several later enacted copyright provisions. The Act spells out the basic rights of copyright holders, codified the doctrine of "fair use", and for most new copyrights adopted a unitary term based on the date of the author's death rather than the prior scheme of fixed initial and renewal terms. It became Public Law number 94-553 on October 19, 1976; most parts of the law went into effect on January 1, 1978.