Copyright Act of 1976 Source: Title 17, United States Code, Sections 101-810. [Sections 106, 107, and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act are of particular interest to the projected user community of this information. However, in order to have the convenience of access to the complete act available it is provided here in its entirety.] Section 101. Definitions. As used in this title, the following terms and their variant forms mean the following: An "anonymous work" is a work on the copies or phonorecords of which no natural person is identified as author. "Audiovisual works" are works that consist of a series of related images which are intrinsically intended to be shown by the use of machines or devices such as projectors, viewers, or electronic equipment, together with accompanying sounds, if any, regardless of the nature of the material objects, such as films or tapes, in which the works are embodied. The "best edition" of a work is the edition, published in the United States at any time before the date of deposit, that the Library of Congress determines to be most suitable for its purposes. A person's "children" are that person's immediate offspring, whether legitimate or not, and any children legally adopted by that person. A "collective work" is a work, such as a periodical issue, anthology, or encyclopedia, in which a number of contributions, constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole. A "compilation" is a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship. The term "compilation" includes collective works. A "computer program" is a set of statements or instructions to be used directly or indirectly in a computer in order to bring about a certain result. "Copies" are material objects, other than phonorecords, in which a work is fixed by any method now known or later developed, and from which the work can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. The term "copies" includes the material object, other than a phonorecord, in which the work is first fixed. "Copyright owner," with respect to any one of the exclusive rights comprised in a copyright, refers to the owner of that particular right. A work is "created" when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the first time; where a work is prepared over a period of time, the portion of it that has been fixed at any particular time constitutes the work as of that time, and where the work has been prepared in different versions, each version constitutes a separate work.