What does copyright protect?

Contributed by Australian Copyright Council and current to May 2022

The Copyright Act sets out eight categories of copyright protected materials. These can be divided into two broad categories:

• ‘works’, and
• ‘subject matter other than works’. The type of material dictates what exclusive rights the copyright owner has (and in turn, what constitutes infringement by others) as well as the duration of copyright.

For information about Australian copyright protection, see the Australian Copyright Council fact sheet An Introduction to Copyright in Australia.

Works

Part III of the Copyright Act outlines the four types of material in this category:

• literary works
• artistic works
• dramatic works, and
• musical works.

Literary works

‘Literary works’ covers textual and written material. Examples of literary works includes books, journal articles, novels, poems, song lyrics and computer software.

Artistic works

‘Artistic works’ includes visual art and images. Examples of artistic works include drawings, paintings, cartoons, sculptures, craft work, architectural plans, buildings, photographs, maps and plans.

Dramatic works

‘Dramatic works’ covers theatrical material. Examples of dramatic works include scripts for plays, film and TV screenplays, dance choreography and mime pieces.

Musical works

‘Musical works’ refers to musical compositions i.e. the combination of notes and musical cues written onto a score. The lyrics for a song are protected separately as a literary work and the recorded performance of music is also protected separately as a sound recording (see Sound Recordings).

Subject-matter other than works

Part IV of the Copyright Act outlines the four types of material in this category:

• cinematograph films
• sound recordings
• broadcasts, and
• published editions.

Cinematograph films

A ‘cinematograph film’ refers to the combination of moving images with sound, and includes films, TV episodes, animations and other videos.

A film may also contain underlying material protected by their own separate copyright, such as the script (a dramatic work) and music (as a musical work).

Sound recordings

A sound recording refers to the audio file containing the recorded sounds. Examples include music tracks on a digital album, audiobooks, and podcasts.

A sound recording will often contain underlying material protected by their own separate copyright, such as music, song lyrics or a script.

Broadcasts

The broadcast signal put out by TV and radio broadcasters is protected by its own copyright. This copyright is separate from the copyright in any film, music or any other material that may appear as a part of that broadcast.

Published editions

A ‘published edition’ is the look and layout of a work, for example the typographical arrangement of a published book. This copyright is separate from the copyright in the works reproduced in the edition (such as poems, illustrations or music).