Copyright issues do not arise unless you are using a “substantial part” of a copyright work. For more information see the “Infringement of Copyright” fact sheet. 

Generally names, titles and headlines are not protected by copyright as they are considered so commonplace and unoriginal that copyright is simply not ascribed to them. In addition, short stand-alone texts (such as slogans or tweets) will often not give rise to copyright issues as they may not be sufficient to be a literary work for copyright purposes. 

Even where names, titles, headlines and extracts are protected as part of a greater work, copying of those individual aspects usually will not infringe copyright in the whole work as it would not be considered a substantial part. But beware - slogans and names may be protected through other areas of intellectual property law, such as “trademark.”

It’s important to understand that copyright only protects the original expression of ideas, not ideas themselves. That’s why it’s important your expression is recorded in a tangible format as you can’t have copyright in your thoughts. For more information see the “How does Copyright Arise” fact sheet.

Likewise, facts or information cannot be protected by copyright. This is essentially because they already exist in the public domain. However, if they are brought together and expressed in an original way, then that expression can be protected. This means that if you’re writing a historical novel based on true events, the novel itself can be protected by copyright but the author won’t gain ownership of the underlying true story. 

The essence of a copyright “work” can be understood by describing what it is not. A copyright work is not a physical object such as a book or painted canvas. These things are the products in which a copyright work may be manifested. A copyright work is the intangible aspect – the product of an author’s creative or intellectual input, expressed in a material form. Copyright exists in a work separately and independently of the tangible object it is contained in. This is why we talk about copyright as “intellectual property” rather than being real or physical property. 

Consider this scenario: if you buy a book you acquire a property right in the physical item but not the copyright in the text (the literary work), images (artistic works) and design layout of the book (typographical arrangement). This means you can sell the book in a second hand bookstore and there’s no infringement of copyright, as the copyright remains with the copyright owner and you are just selling the physical object. 

Under the Copyright Act, some specific types of public documents do not have copyright protection, such as statutes, court judgments and official reports. However, the format in which some material is published may be protected by copyright as a typographical arrangement.

When the copyright term comes to an end (generally 50 years after the death of the creator), it is said to have “expired” and the work becomes part of the “public domain”. Anyone may copy or publish a public domain work without the requirement to get permission.