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  • copyright
    copyright
    noun
    the exclusive right to make copies, license, and otherwise exploit a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video, etc.: works granted such right by law on or after January 1, 1978, are protected for the lifetime of an author or creator and for a period of 70 years after their death.
  • ©
    ©
    symbol
    copyright
Synonyms

copyright

American  
[kop-ee-rahyt] / ˈkɒp iˌraɪt /

noun

  • copyrights
    plural
  1. the exclusive right to make copies, license, and otherwise exploit a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video, etc.: works granted such right by law on or after January 1, 1978, are protected for the lifetime of an author or creator and for a period of 70 years after their death.


adjective

  1. of or relating to copyrights.

  2. Also copyrighted. protected by copyright.

verb (used with object)

  • copyrights,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • copyrighted,
    past participle,  past
  • copyrighting
    present participle
  1. to secure a copyright on.

copyright 1 British  
/ ˈkɒpɪˌraɪt /

noun

  1. (c). the exclusive right to produce copies and to control an original literary, musical, or artistic work, granted by law for a specified number of years (in Britain, usually 70 years from the death of the author, composer, etc, or from the date of publication if later)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

adjective

  1. (of a work, etc) subject to or controlled by copyright

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (tr) to take out a copyright on

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
© 2 British  

symbol

  1. copyright

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

copyright 1 Cultural  
  1. The legal protection given to published works, forbidding anyone but the author from publishing or selling them. An author can transfer the copyright to another person or corporation, such as a publishing company.


copyright 2 Cultural  
  1. A grant of an exclusive right to produce or sell a book, motion picture, work of art, musical composition, software, or similar product during a specified period of time.


Discover More

The symbol (see also symbol) for copyright is ©.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future


Etymology

Origin of copyright

First recorded in 1725–35; copy + right


Explanation

A copyright is a document that gives the ownership rights over artistic work, like songs or stories. If you don't get a copyright for your brilliant new novel, someone could adapt it into a movie without paying you a dime. Copyright means exactly what it sounds like: the right to make copies of something. If you copyright a song, a singer will to have to pay you to record it. Usually, copyright only lasts for a certain number of years. In the U.S. when a book or song has had a copyright for more than 75 years, that expires and it becomes "public domain," which means nobody owns the rights to it anymore.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing copyright

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

The different types of AI-inspired losses range from bodily injury and property damage—caused by, say, an error-prone factory robot—to copyright infringement, unauthorized data disclosures, hallucinated errors and regulatory penalties.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

If someone makes the Sailor Slippers, you can talk to them about how the original creator filed a copyright takedown against a designer who adapted the pattern for crochet.

From Slate ● Oct. 11, 2026

So far the EU has sent over 30 requests for information -- a preliminary step that can lead to investigations -- to companies on issues from copyright to cybersecurity and safety.

From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026

Mattie Music Group, doing business as Bleunig Music, accused Capitol Records and Universal Music, among other co-defendants, of one count of copyright infringement in a complaint filed Thursday in U.S.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026

Esso suspected copyright infringement and prepared several lawsuits, but in fact, an unknown resident had built “The Agloe General Store” at the intersection that appeared on the Esso map.

From "Paper Towns" by John Green

Under Kenyan law, copyrights expire 50 years after the composer’s death.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026

And celebrities with valuable intellectual property rights, such as copyrights from the Reiners’ many film and television properties, tend to establish trusts.

From Salon ● Dec. 25, 2025

The deal comes amid reports Disney lawyers sent Google a cease-and-desist letter on Wednesday accusing the tech firm of infringing its copyrights "on a massive scale".

From BBC ● Dec. 11, 2025

They alleged that Cox’s subscribers infringed their copyrights in sound recordings and musical compositions by copying and distributing them via BitTorrent and other networks.

From Slate ● Nov. 28, 2025

The answer may lie in the long struggle to get the copyrights back from Fabyan.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield

But Olly - who has dealt with these before when he has mistakenly posted copyrighted material - says they are usually easy to deal with, and "you can easily tell the difference".

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026

The Times' lawsuit partly hinges on the limited "fair use" exception, which permits copyrighted work to be used without the rights holders' consent.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

The lawsuit filed Monday focuses on how AI products use and compensate for artists’ name, image and likeness—rather than the copyrighted music itself.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

What constitutes “fair use” of copyrighted works for training an AI model remains contentious.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

It was copyrighted 1972 by the Esso company.

From "Paper Towns" by John Green

On the other hand, that can also be an advantage, said a 30-year-old pilot who goes by the name Makarena and worked in copyrighting before the war.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2023

Its widespread use has been facilitated by Kruger’s disinterest in copyrighting her work.

From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 2022

Senior manager of LHI Sonia Mora said the county is in the process of copyrighting Abuelina and her family members to ensure they are not used for commercial purposes.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 8, 2021

But copyrighting the software for an electronic transmission system is easy, and it gives companies a huge advantage in locking out third-party repair shops.

From The Verge ● Apr. 24, 2015

This I prevented by copyrighting the two remaining thirds in England! 

From Memoirs by Charles Godfrey Leland

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