Legal Definitions - copyright-management information

Copyright-management information refers to specific data associated with a creative work that identifies its creator, performer, or the entity that owns the copyright. This information is crucial for managing and enforcing copyright protections, as it clearly indicates who holds the rights to the work.

Here are some examples to illustrate this concept:

• Digital Photograph: Imagine a professional photographer uploads a high-resolution image to their website. Embedded within the image file itself (often as EXIF data) is information such as the photographer's name, their studio's contact details, and the copyright year. Additionally, the image might feature a visible watermark displaying the photographer's name or logo.

  This data serves as copyright-management information because it directly identifies the creator (the photographer) and the copyright owner, making it clear who holds the rights and how to contact them for licensing or permissions.

• Published Book: When you open a new novel, you'll typically find a "copyright page" near the front. This page usually states the author's name, the publisher's name, the year of publication, and a copyright notice such as "© [Year] [Author's Name]" or "© [Year] [Publisher's Name]".

  This collection of details on the copyright page constitutes copyright-management information. It explicitly identifies the author as the creator and the copyright owner (or the publisher if rights have been transferred), providing essential legal identification for the work.

• Online Educational Video: Consider a university professor who creates and uploads a detailed lecture video to a public online platform. In the video's description, they include text like "Created by Dr. Emily Chen, Department of Biology, State University. © [Year] State University." The video itself might also begin with a title card displaying this same information.

  This information in the description and on the title card acts as copyright-management information. It clearly identifies Dr. Chen as the creator and the State University as the copyright owner, establishing who holds the rights to the educational content.