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A lawyer is a person who writes a 10,000-word document and calls it a 'brief'.
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Legal Definitions - distribution right
Definition of distribution right
The distribution right is a core component of copyright law that gives the creator or owner of a copyrighted work the exclusive power to control how copies of their work are made available to the public. This means only the copyright holder can decide to sell, rent, lend, or otherwise transfer ownership or possession of physical or digital copies of their protected creation.
Here are some examples illustrating the distribution right:
Example 1: Digital Music Release
A musician records a new song and holds the copyright. They decide to release it digitally, making it available for purchase as a download on their website and for streaming on various online music platforms. By choosing to offer their song in these ways, they are exercising their distribution right. If another person were to upload and sell copies of that song online without the musician's permission, it would be an infringement of this exclusive right.
Example 2: Publishing a Novel
An author completes a new novel and signs a contract with a publishing house. The author, as the copyright holder, grants the publisher a license to print and sell copies of the book. The publisher then prints thousands of copies and ships them to bookstores, libraries, and online retailers across the country. This entire process of making the physical books available for sale or lending to the public is a direct exercise of the author's (and by license, the publisher's) distribution right.
Example 3: Software Licensing
A software company develops a new accounting program. Instead of selling physical discs, they offer the software through a downloadable license model. Users pay a fee to download and install the program on their computers, agreeing to specific terms of use. The company's decision to make the software available for download and use by the public, and to control the terms under which it can be accessed, is an exercise of its distribution right. They control who gets copies and how those copies can be used.
Simple Definition
The distribution right is a copyright holder's exclusive legal power to control how copies of their protected work are made available to the public, such as by selling, leasing, or lending them. This means only the copyright owner can authorize the initial public distribution of their work. However, once a copy is lawfully sold, the first-sale doctrine generally allows the buyer to resell or dispose of that specific copy without the copyright holder's further permission.
