Intellectual property can be a complicated matter, but every business in the United States and every up-and-coming entrepreneur should gain knowledge of how it works. “After that, the copyrighted work goes into the public domain and it’s free for everyone to get access to.” “The duration of protection for a copyrighted item is 70 years,” Dr. Creative works can be registered with the United States Copyright Office at. A federal office was established long ago to protect intellectual property rights. But more specifically, the government states that it grants automatic protection to printed works, software, artwork, photos, video, and practically everything on the internet once it is ‘fixed in any tangible medium of expression.'”Ĭopyright law is huge in the United States, especially with so many people creating things every day. “When you hear the word copyright, you tend to think of books and movies, and those do fit under copyright laws.

Code provides protection for creative products,” Dr. Patents often cover inventions, while trademarks are usually for names or logos of things.Ī third kind of intellectual property protection is a copyright. All these can be protected legally to prevent others from stealing your work.

Whether it’s a business name, a painting, a new invention, or a photograph that becomes an instantly recognizable album cover. In any creative field, an intellectual property is something that comes out of your head. Goldsby, Stoops Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University, explained the finer points of copyright law. In his video series The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit, Dr. If the suit isn’t thrown out, copyright law may affect the outcome of the case.

However, Kirk Weddle, the photographer of the well-known album cover, was friends with Elden’s parents, who agreed to have their son in the picture and were paid $200 for it. Now, Elden, 30, is suing the remaining band members-guitarist and singer Kurt Cobain died in 1994-over the cover, calling it “child pornography” and demanding compensation and that future reissues of Nevermind be altered. The cover of the album depicts a four-month-old baby, Spencer Elden, naked in a swimming pool, swimming for a dollar on a hook. In 1991, the famed grunge band Nirvana released their sophomore full-length album Nevermind, which became one of the best-selling albums of all time, moving 30 million copies. Spencer Elden, now 30, claims that the album cover, which depicted him naked at four months old, is 'child pornography.' Copyright law may decide the verdict.

Nirvana nevermind cover explained