The U.S. Constitution in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, give the federal government the power to regulate copyrights. Prior to 1978 copyright protection was granted by both state and federal laws, but the statutes found in Title 17 USC now provide exclusive Federal jurisdiction.

There are five statutory rights granted to the owner of a copyright by law:

      a. Reproduction: grants the exclusive right to copy or reproduce the work in any tangible form;

      b. Preparation of derivative works: grants the exclusive right to prepare reproductions which are not actual copies, but are derivations. For example, a statue made from a drawing would be a derivative work.

      c. Distribution of copies: grants the exclusive right to sell copies to the public or to rent or lease them at the time of the "first sale." A person who made an authorized purchase on the first sale of a work is entitled to legally resell the work in the original form without permission. That is, after a book or CD is sold the buyer may resell it without permission.

      d. Public performance: grants the exclusive right to perform in public a copyrighted literary, musical, dramatic or choreographic work, pantomime, motion picture, or other audiovisual work.

      e. Public display: grants the exclusive right to display in public literary, musical, dramatic or choreographic work, pantomime, pictorial, graphic, sculpture, or individual image from a motion picture.

These exclusive rights are not complete, however. The "Fair Use Doctrine" was originally created by the courts as an equitable rule allowing some use of copyrighted material without permission and was codified in the Copyright Act of 1976. This doctrine provides several exceptions to the exclusive rights of a copyright owner usually based upon some contribution to the public welfare. Fair use exceptions are not fixed in detail, but evolve and are based upon factors such as use for nonprofit educational purposes and whether the use substantially affects the economic value of the work. Some uses which are generally considered to be within the Fair Use Doctrine include: literary criticism or comment, news reporting, teaching (including the making of multiple copies for use in the classroom), and scholarship or research.