Overview

Why is it important that works eventually fall out of copyright? Are there any works that do not qualify for copyright protection and may be freely used?

A critical aspect of copyright law is that the protection it provides does not last forever. After a set term, the copyright expires and the work enters the public domain for everyone to copy, adapt and share. Likewise, there are certain types of works that fall outside the scope of copyright. Note that moral rights may continue to exist in works that have otherwise entered the public domain. As we saw in the last unit, this is the case under Myanmar’s new Copyright Act.