that has been created from a preexisting work through changes that can only be made with the permission of the copyright holder. It is important to note that not all changes to an existing work require permission. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation or derivative when the modified work is based on the prior work and manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.
Copyright owners often grant permission to others to adapt their work. Adaptations are entitled to their own copyright, but that protection only applies to the new elements that are particular to the adaptation. For example, if the author of a poem gives someone permission to make an adaptation, that person may rearrange stanzas, add new stanzas, and change some of the wording, among other things. Generally, the original author retains all copyright in the elements of the poem that remain in the adaptation, and the person adapting the poem has a copyright in their new contributions to the adapted poem. Creating a derivative work does not eliminate the copyright held by the creator of the preexisting work.
A special note about additional exclusive rights
There are two other categories of rights that are important to understand because the rights are licensed and referenced by Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools:
- Moral rights: As mentioned above, moral rights are an integral feature of many countries’ copyright laws. These rights are recognized in Article 6bis of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works—described in more detail in section 2.2—and are integrated in the laws of all treaty signatories to some extent. Creative Commons licenses and legal tools account for these moral rights, and the reality is that they cannot be waived or licensed in many countries, even though other exclusive economic rights are waivable or licensable.
- Similar and related rights (including rights known in many countries as “neighboring rights”): Closely related to copyright are similar and related rights. These are rights that relate to copyrighted works and grant additional exclusive rights beyond the basic rights granted authors that were described above. Some of these rights are governed by international treaties, but they also vary country by country. Generally, these rights are
