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Digital Media - What You Need to Know

The Digital Media Copyright "Know How"

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Quiz - What about your rights?

You're a creator with original online works. How can you stop viewers from downloading your work, printing it, copying it onto their own websites, forwarding it to others, revising or manipulating it, and then claiming it as their own? Use this quiz to check out your rights in this new digital world. Click on each icon to check your answer.

What About Your Rights?

Question 1: What does the symbol © mean?

Answer: This is the copyright symbol.

Question 2: Is the Internet subject to copyright laws?

Answer: Yes, copyright laws extend to all forms of electronic publication.

Question 3: Under the law, can somebody make major modifications to my writing, graphic image, music or photograph?

Answer: No, this is a copyright infringement.

Question 4: Can I charge money to someone who wants to use my online work?

Answer: Yes, and the amount depends on what you can negotiate.

 

Note: This quiz was adapted with permission from Digital Property: Currency of the 21st Century by Lesley Ellen Harris and published in 1998 by McGraw-Hill.

For more information on your rights: cipo.ic.gc.ca

Why IP Matters

Canadian interactive Digital Media companies are highly innovative, investing significantly in research and development (R&D) and producing on average 65% of their projects based on internally developed original intellectual property (IP).

Would you believe that 75% or more of total production budgets are committed to IP in more than half of all Canadian games companies?

So, what exactly is IP?

Intellectual Property: refers to ownership of formal rights such as copyright, trademarks, patents and designs. This ownership allows the owner to own their creativity and innovation in the same way that they can own physical property. The owner of IP can control and be rewarded for its use.

What do I need to know about IP? If you plan to build a business around a unique idea, then you have to consult with a lawyer and know how to protect the idea, your business and yourself from future competitors.

For more information IP: cipo.ic.gc.ca