copyright

1 of 3

noun

copy·​right ˈkä-pē-ˌrīt How to pronounce copyright (audio)
: the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something (such as a literary, musical, or artistic work)
His family still holds the copyright to his songs.

copyright

2 of 3

verb

copyrighted; copyrighting; copyrights

transitive verb

: to secure a copyright on
He has copyrighted all of his plays.
copyrightable adjective

copyright

3 of 3

adjective

: secured by copyright
copyright songs

Examples of copyright in a Sentence

Noun His family still holds the copyright to his songs. The book is under copyright. Verb He has copyrighted all of his plays. Adjective The copyright date is 2005.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
The company agrees to be permanently enjoined from working on Yuzu, hosting Yuzu, distributing Yuzu’s code or features, hosting websites and social media that promote Yuzu, or doing anything else that circumvents Nintendo’s copyright protection. Sean Hollister, The Verge, 4 Mar. 2024 Shot Tower’s report also took into account royalty income streams and administration rights or copyrights due to be returned to the firm in future years, the fund said. Richard Smirke, Billboard, 4 Mar. 2024 This includes not only patents, trademarks and copyrights but also trade secrets, confidential information and proprietary software or technologies. Expert Panel®, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024 Copyright Office, whose treatises on copyright are among the most frequently cited by federal courts, and who was also a senior copyright counsel at Google during the Authors Guild litigation. Alex Reisner, The Atlantic, 29 Feb. 2024 But because Sora is also trained on videos taken from the public web, owners of other videos could raise legal challenges alleging copyright infringement. Tyler Remmel, Washington Post, 28 Feb. 2024 The estate first publicly alleged the copyright violation in an Instagram post on the official Summer account on the day of the album's release. CBS News, 28 Feb. 2024 The feud is the latest in a series of lawsuits mostly initiated by authors, who are taking advantage of a provision in copyright law that allows authors to reclaim the rights to their works after waiting a period of time, typically 35 years. Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Feb. 2024 The lawsuit alleges copyright infringement, fraud, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment. Shania Russell, EW.com, 21 Feb. 2024
Verb
Chief Critic Ian Crosby, the Times’ lead counsel, dismissed the allegations, noting OpenAI does not dispute the core complaint in the newspaper’s lawsuit—that copyrighted New York Times stories were used to build and train ChatGPT. Zachary Folk, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024 If true, that’s some major chutzpah on TikTok’s part, given that AI creations can’t be copyrighted and, depending on the AI-training material, may in themselves violate copyright. David Meyer, Fortune, 31 Jan. 2024 Artists argue that the A.I. platforms are spitting out replicas of their existing work—much of which is copyrighted—rather than using it as inspiration to create something new. Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Jan. 2024 Features added to the mouse in his long evolution are still copyrighted. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 26 Dec. 2023 But the rules also sidestep some of the most controversial issues around generative AI AI models trained on publicly available — but sensitive and potentially copyrighted — data have become a big point of contention for organizations, for instance. Emilia David, The Verge, 14 Dec. 2023 Billboard pointed out the opinion filed on November 1st (PDF), where US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Paez wrote that even if individual elements of a dance can’t be copyrighted, the arrangement can. Wes Davis, The Verge, 4 Nov. 2023 Tech companies have grown increasingly secretive about the contents of these data sets, partially because the text and images included often contain copyrighted, inaccurate or even obscene material. Szu Yu Chen, Washington Post, 1 Nov. 2023 Courtesy of United States Copyright Office An award-winning piece of AI art cannot be copyrighted, the US Copyright Office has ruled. Kate Knibbs, WIRED, 6 Sep. 2023
Adjective
Nintendo is asking for $2,500 for every violation of the anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, as well as $150,000 for each copyright violation. Antonio Pequeño Iv, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024 Stateside, the issue of inputs has become the subject of ongoing court cases: One notable example is The New York Times’ decision to sue OpenAI for copyright infringement on the basis that the AI company used the newspaper’s articles as training data. Johanna Costigan, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2024 OpenAI, Microsoft and other companies have said that their AI training is protected by the copyright doctrine of fair use and that the lawsuits threaten the burgeoning AI industry. Reuters, NBC News, 13 Feb. 2024 The company later brought the technology to Photoshop and web apps and promised to cover enterprise legal bills that might arise from copyright claims against artwork generated with its tools. Benj Edwards, Ars Technica, 10 Oct. 2023 To add to the complexity, some sound recordings have a longer copyright period than the standard 95-year term. Schuyler Moore, Forbes, 9 Feb. 2024 Disney unbound The first version of Disney's famous Mickey Mouse has entered the public domain in the United States, in a landmark day following years of the animation company lobbying for longer copyright terms. The Week Staff, theweek, 7 Jan. 2024 Ditko, along with the artists Don Heck, Don Rico, Gene Colan, and Lawrence D. Lieber, first submitted copyright termination notices to Marvel in 2021 in an effort to reclaim the rights to characters such as Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, and Thor. J. Clara Chan, Los Angeles Times, 8 Dec. 2023 Google said in its lawsuit that, under the DMCA, it is obligated to trust the assertions that copyright claimants make in takedown requests. Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica, 27 Nov. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'copyright.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1735, in the meaning defined above

Verb

circa 1806, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

1870, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of copyright was in 1735

Dictionary Entries Near copyright

Cite this Entry

“Copyright.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/copyright. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

copyright

1 of 2 noun
copy·​right -ˌrīt How to pronounce copyright (audio)
: the legal right to be the only one to reproduce, publish, or sell the contents and form of a literary, musical, or artistic work
copyright adjective

copyright

2 of 2 verb
: to get a copyright on

Legal Definition

copyright

1 of 2 noun
copy·​right ˈkä-pē-ˌrīt How to pronounce copyright (audio)
: a person's exclusive right to reproduce, publish, or sell his or her original work of authorship (as a literary, musical, dramatic, artistic, or architectural work) see also common-law copyright, fair use at use sense 2, infringe, intellectual property at property, international copyright, original, public domain compare patent, trademark

Note: Copyrights are governed by the Copyright Act of 1976 contained in title 17 of the U.S. Code. The Act protects published or unpublished works that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression from which they can be perceived. The Act does not protect matters such as an idea, process, system, or discovery. Protection under the Act extends for the life of the creator of the work plus seventy years after his or her death. For works created before January 1, 1978, but not copyrighted or in the public domain, the copyright starts on January 1, 1978, and extends for the same period as for other works, but in any case will not expire before December 31, 2002. If a work is published on or before December 31, 2002, the copyright will not expire before December 31, 2047. The Act abolishes protection under common law, as well as any rights available under state statute, in favor of the rights available under the provisions of the Act, with certain exceptions.

copyright adjective

copyright

2 of 2 transitive verb
: to secure a copyright on
copyrightability
ˌkä-pē-ˌrī-tə-ˈbi-lə-tē
noun
copyrightable adjective
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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