What does copyright protect?

• A. The right to patent inventions.
• B. The creative work of authors, allowing them to take legal action if used without permission.
• C. A trademark's symbol.
• D. The idea behind a work.

Answer: (B)

Copyright protects the actual creative expression put into a tangible form by a creator. It covers the specific way something is written, drawn, recorded, or performed—text, music, artwork, software, films, and similar works. Because of this protection, the creator can control who copies, distributes, publicly performs, or makes new works based on it, and can take legal action if someone uses it without permission. Importantly, copyright does not shield ideas themselves or inventions; those are addressed by patents. It also doesn’t protect a brand’s symbol—that’s trademark law. And the protection applies to the concrete form the creator fixed, not the underlying idea behind it.