In this first lesson, we’ll start with the basics—what is copyright? What does it cover and who is it for? We’ll discuss the six exclusive rights granted to creators by the copyright law as well as the difference between copyright, trademarks, and patents. We’ll also discuss how to leverage the six exclusive rights as a creator to use the copyright law to your benefit.

In this lesson, we’ll take a look at copyright law in practice. We’ll begin by discussing the benefits and the potential legal pitfalls of a cowriting relationship. We’ll also discuss the concept of fair use and identify examples of fair use in copyright. We’ll take a look at the concept of independent creation and how that affects you as a creator. Finally, we’ll discuss the public domain and learn how works enter, leave, and return to the public domain.

Sampling is commonplace in popular music today and this lesson focuses on the legal side of this popular creative process. We’ll define the difference between a composition copyright and a sound recording copyright and how they function. We’ll take a closer look at sampling from a legal perspective and compare it to another popular practice called replay (also known as interpolation). Finally, we’ll discuss the current legal arguments around the practice of sampling and how they affect you as an artist.

In this final lesson, we’ll take a deeper look at copyright law and litigation—the roles of lawyers and judges, the mechanics of a copyright lawsuit, and the various ways that copyright issues can be resolved.