Copyright

Copyright gives the owner of material the right to control how their material is used. Anything created as a result of independent intellectual effort or as the result of a collaborative effort can be copyrighted.
What to not do:

• Copying
• Adapting
• Distributing
• Public Transmission
• Public Performance
• Renting
• Lending

Cases of copyright infringement:

There was a case between Star wars and Battlestar galactica, the issue was that galactica may have

stole too many ideas from star wars. 20th century fox tried to sue universal studios, claiming that 

they had stolen ‘34 distinct ideas from star wars’.

There was also a six year long lawsuit between Apple and Microsoft over who first invented the

 graphical user interface. In the end it was decided in Microsoft's favor.