Copyright law varies by jurisdiction where there is generally a clause that makes special permission for 'fair use' or 'fair dealing' of a work (Open Oasis, 2010). Copyright refers to the exclusive rights owned by the author or creator of a work. Only the copyright owner can authorize reproductions or different versions of a work - in part or in whole.
Copyright does not protect ideas, titles, short phrases, names, slogans and typography. There is also "work made for hire" which means that author was hired to make a product by a hiring party and ,thus, the rights belong to the hiring party, not the author.
The duration of copyright varies in different countries . For instance, America - Life + 70 years and Mexico - Life + 100 years. After the copyright license expires the work goes to the public domain where everybody can use it.
Creative Commons licences are popular with both authors and publishers. Many Open Access publishers use Creative Commons licences to ensure that the content of the articles published in their journals are reusable in the widest sense: that is, they can be reproduced, abstracted and mixed with other material to produce new information. In some cases, publishers and authors wish to make their work as freely reusable as possible, including by other parties who may develop new products to sell by reusing the material in some way. The most appropriate licence for the publisher to use in this instance is the Creative Commons Attribution licence - a tool that requires the creator of the work to be acknowledged when the work is re-used but does not restrict the re-use in any way.
Bibliography
Open Oasis (2010) Publishers, copyright and open access. Available at: http://www.openoasis.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=550&Itemid=372 (Accessed: 10 November 2014).