What is Copyright?
The term Copyright confuses people of all ages and professions. We'll address some of that confusion and explain just what copyright is.
Copyright is the right to or ownership of a work for a limited time. It also gives the creator the right to be credited with the work and profit from it. Most countries follow a set of copyright guidlines. The law can be complex and difficult to interpret sometimes.
Basically, if you didn't create it then you can't reuse it and profit from it except under very specific guidelines.
YouTube and Copyright
You might notice a lot of videos you try to watch on YouTube get removed by the owners who make a claim to YouTube that it has been posted without permission. It is their right to do that. They want credit and the potential marketing that comes from content they own. YouTube programs have gotten very good at determining if a video uploaded meets their guidelines.
As we all know, nothing explains concepts better than little animated creatures that make annoying sounds...
See? Now, this is directly related to YouTube's policies, but they are pretty standard. While their warnings sound pretty serious. It's not unheard of for a teenager to get sued for copyright infringement. If you need to use material that is copyrighted, it's best you go about doing it the proper way. Get permission (or make certain that what you're doing falls under Fair Use guidelines which will be covered later.)
Move on to Perspectives on Copyright.