And then there's Copyright
	Copyright is intended to ensure that the person who created something--whether a book or a piece of music--is recognized or reimbursed for his or her intellectual work.

A copyright is a set of legal rights that an author has over his or her work for a specified period of time. Copyright covers everything from books to images to sound files from the Web. It also includes the paper that you are writing.

Most information is protected by copyright. The exception is work that is in the "public domain," which can be reproduced or used by anyone. However, you still must credit the author. Some examples of public domain sources:

Public Domain Sources	Examples
Publications of the U.S. Government		U.S. laws and other publications of the Federal government, the U.S. Constitution
Works for which copyright has been waived by the author		Software called freeware
Works on which the copyright has expired		Works by William Shakespeare