Derivative works facts for kids
A derivative work is a creative piece that is based on something someone else already made. Think of it like a new version or a spin-off of an original creation. This term is important in copyright rules.
Copyright rules say that when someone creates something original, like a book, a song, or a painting, they own the rights to it. This means other people usually cannot copy it or use it without the creator's permission. Copyright helps creators earn money from their work.
What Makes a Work "Derivative"?
A derivative work uses parts of an existing work. For example, if you watch a movie and then write a new story about the characters from that movie, your story is a derivative work. If you hear a song and then sing the same tune with completely different words, your new song is also a derivative work.
Why Permission is Needed
Under copyright rules, if someone owns the copyright to a work, you generally need their permission to create a derivative work based on it. So, if you want to write a story about characters from a popular movie, you would need to get permission from the movie's creators first.
This rule mainly applies if you knew about the original work and based your creation on it. If you create something that happens to be very similar to an existing work, but you never saw or heard the original, then your creation is not considered a derivative work in the legal sense. It's called an "independent creation."
Images for kids
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Marcel Duchamp's 1919 artwork L.H.O.O.Q., which is a derivative work based on the famous Mona Lisa painting.
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Artists copying the "Mona Lisa". The original painting is very old and no longer has copyright (it's in the public domain). However, the new copies and this photograph of the artists would have their own copyrights.
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In U.S. law, this image is a derivative work of a chest radiograph (an X-ray). The original X-ray is in the public domain, but the added graphics make this new version copyrightable.
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Screenshot of a pop-up ad from Half.com appearing over Amazon's website around 2008.
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A graphic from the United States Copyright Office from 1959, showing examples of derivative works.
See also
In Spanish: Obra derivada para niños
