Section 106 of the Copyright Law gives the copyright owner the exclusive right to do and to authorize any of the following:

• To reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;
• To prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
• 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;
• To display the copyrighted work publicly in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work;
• To perform the copyrighted work publicly in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, motion pictures and other audiovisual works; and
• To perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission in the case of sound recordings.

Exemptions from Copyright Holder Rights

While the copyright holder has these exclusive rights, the Copyright Law gives certain exemptions for specific purposes. Go to the What Is Exempt from Copyright Holder Rights? section for more detail on exemptions.