Top Ten Current Key Copyright Issues And Pitfalls Affecting Nonprofits

With decades of experience assisting nonprofit clients with copyright issues, we periodically like to offer refreshers on key copyright issues and highlight current trends we see nonprofit organizations encounter with copyrights. Below are some of the key copyright issues that we have found increasingly relevant to nonprofits of all sizes and types.

1. A Copyright Automatically Exists Upon Creation. A copyright is a type of intellectual property that exists once an original work of authorship is created. Copyright registration has significant benefits, as will be discussed below, but a copyright exists automatically even without a registration. This means a nonprofit routinely encounters copyrights it creates or that belong to others throughout the day, whether in print materials, power point presentations, photos, music, artwork, or software programs, and online, including on websites and social media. Every day, nonprofits create new copyrights and interact with