Copyright protection in the United States is broad, particularly in the context of digital media, but it is not all-encompassing. The exclusive rights of copyright holders are set out in Section 106 (and §106A) of the Copyright Act, and anything that falls outside the scope of those enumerated exclusive rights, or within any of the many exceptions found in the act, is beyond the scope of protection.
This is a fairly straightforward statement of the law but it is easy to forget, and copyright holders often come to the conclusion that any use of their copyrighted material entitles them to a payment. As new technologies and new uses arise, that conclusion is not always a good fit with the law and the courts must step in to determine the boundaries of the statute.
