Under US law, a copyright is the set of exclusive legal rights authors have over their works for a limited period of time. These rights include copying the works (including parts of the works), making derivative works, distributing the works, and performing the works (this means showing a movie or playing an audio recording, as well as performing a dramatic work). Under current US law, for works created after January 1978, the author’s rights come into existence the moment a work is created. A work first created or published after 1989 does not have to bear a copyright notice or be registered with the US Copyright Office in order to have copyright protection.