Copyright:

I've been looking at copyright recently and as it plays such a big role in the design industry I'll give you a brief overview.
In short, copyright is the exclusive right to make copies, license and otherwise exploit a piece of work in any form.
The main things you need to know about copyright are that:
  - Copyright protection is free and automatically applied when material is created.
  - In Australia, there isn't a registration system for copyright.
  - Copyright protects textural material, computer programs, complications, artistic, dramatic and muscial works, cinematograph films, sound recordings, broadcasts, published editions.
  - Copyright doesn't protect ideas, information, styles, techniques, names, titles or slogans.
  - As of the 1 January 2005 the general duration of copyright in Australia is the life of the creatior plus 70years.
There is quite a bit of information out there about copyright but the best websites I found are:
http://www.copyright.org.au/ (particularly easy to navigate and contains much of the basic information you need to know).
http://www.copyright.com.au/
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/ (the above two require a little bit more knowledge and are not a easy to navigate, but are useful none the less).