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As a component of intellectual property law, a copyright enables an owner of intellectual property the right to exclude other parties from distributing, displaying, reproducing, or using the property covered by the copyright, whether it be both tangible or intangible, for a specific time period.

The U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101 - 810, is Federal legislation enacted by Congress under its Constitutional grant of authority to protect the writings of authors. See U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8. Evolving technology has led to an ever expanding understanding of the word "writings". The Copyright Act now covers architectural design, software, the graphic arts, motion pictures, and sound recordings. Because federal legislation invalidates inconsistent state law, the copyright field is almost exclusively a Federal one.

A copyright gives the owner the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, or license his work. The owner also receives the exclusive right to produce or license derivatives of his or her work. Limited exceptions to this exclusivity exist for types of "fair use", such as book reviews. Under current law, works are covered whether or not a copyright notice is attached and whether or not the work is registered.

The federal agency charged with administering the act is the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.