Copyright is a hot topic nowadays with everyone wanting to protect their content. Thankfully there are laws in place in Australia that make protecting your work easy. When an original work is first created, the author is automatically granted copyright protection. This lasts for the lifetime of the author and an additional 70 years after their death. This protection gives the author of a work the ability to stop others from reproducing or adapting their work. However, an author can choose to put a Creative Commons Licence on their work. This licensing tool is free and specifies how an author chooses to allow people to use their work. A Creative Commons Licence is made up of four parts, the first is automatically included. This is the Attribution Licence, which means that the author must be credited by the user. The following three licences are optional at the discretion of the author. The Non-Commercial Licence does not permit anyone but the author to profit from their work. The No Derivatives Licence does not allow those using the work to alter it in any way. Finally, the Share Alike Licence means that new creations including the author’s work must carry the same licence. Whilst copy right can sometimes seem a little confusing and have some grey areas, it is important to always attempt to respect an author’s wishes. Be sure to always carefully look over Creative Commons Licences.