Does copyright law apply to the Internet?

Yes, it does, although the words "electronic" or "Internet" don't appear in the Copyright Act. Because the Internet is a new medium, people may assume that different rules apply there, but that is not the case. Copyright law seeks to protect the fixed expression of an idea, regardless of the medium it is published on. For example, a story that is published on paper, in a book, has a fixed arrangement of words, character and plot. But if that same story was published as an electronic book, on the Internet, it would still have the same words, character and plot. And that is what copyright law tries to protect.

Suppose you bought the most recent best selling paperback book from Tom Clancy, and re-entered the text into your computer. If copyright laws didn't apply on the Internet, nothing would stop you from uploading that text to the World Wide Web and selling Mr. Clancy's book directly. But since copyright subsists in his words, you are not allowed to reproduce them, in a book, on a computer disk, or on the Internet.

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December 1998

More Copyright FAQs:

• General
• Exemptions & Exceptions
• Crown Copyright
• Electronic & Online Publications & Programs

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