Fifth Grade
Worksheets
Your Copyrights
World Book and Copyright Day
Reading Comprehension for April 23
Your teacher made you write a poem for class. You spent hours writing, scribbling out, and writing some more. Your brain hurt from all that hard work, but you finally had a poem to be proud of. You copied it neatly on a clean sheet of paper, added a title and your name, and turned it in. It earned the best grade you ever got in that class!
Would you be surprised to learn that you now own a copyright? It's true! Every time you write something original, you own the copyright to it. It could be a story, an essay, the lyrics for a song, or even a logo for a new product that you want to sell. If you didn't copy someone else's work, then you own the copyright.
The copyright means you own the rights to your work. It's your choice whether someone can make copies of it, display it for people to see, publish it, or perform it in a show. No one can do any of those things without your permission. Your work is yours to do with as you please. If you wanted to sell it, you wouldn't want people taking it and making copies for free. You would be upset if someone took your work and sold it to make money for himself. The copyright protects your rights. The copyright makes it illegal for anyone to use an author's or artist's work without first getting his or her permission. The author would have the right to sue the guilty person in court!
