What rights does a copyright owner have?

Copyright gives the copyright owner a number of legal rights, such as the right to copy and translate a work. In a university setting, the most pertinent rights are the right to reproduce the copyright-protected work and the right to communicate the work to the public by telecommunication. The latter right is important in relation to the transmission of digital copies of works by email or over the Internet. These rights are qualified by certain exceptions which balance the copyright owner’s interests with the public interest in allowing use of works for purposes such as education and research.

It is an infringement of copyright to copy all or any substantial part of a copyright-protected work or to communicate all or any substantial part of a copyright-protected work to the public by telecommunication without the permission of the copyright holder, unless copying or communicating the work falls within one of the exemptions in the Copyright Act.

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