A Definition of “All Rights Reserved”

Many people place a notice of copyright on artifacts such as web pages and include the text, “All Rights Reserved,” without actually knowing what those rights are.

The text of United States Code Title 17 (“Copyrights”), Chapter 1 (“Subject Matter and Scope of Copyright”), Section 106 (“Exclusive rights in copyrighted works”) is presented below:

Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:

(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;
(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomines, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;
(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomines, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and
(6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

As indicated above, the rights are subject to sections 107 through 122 of United States Code Title 17, Chapter 1.

Questions, comments, and responses are welcomed and appreciated.

4 Responses to “A Definition of “All Rights Reserved””

  1. Steve Says:

    The format of a copyright notice, according to the United States Copyright Office is:
    (C) [year of first publication] [name of copyright owner]

    An example of a copyright notice is:
    (C) 2018 Steve Doria

  2. rufassa Says:

    i like this definition

  3. Josh Says:

    I was hoping for more of a nice brief response.

  4. x2fer Says:

    you couldn’t even save me any reading and just summarized those rights? boo.

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