Topics covered in this snack-sized chapter:
Copyright allows authors, musicians, artists, etc. to make money off of their labor.
- Essentially protects motive for creative endeavors.
- It prevents others from taking work for free.
It also prevents people from altering the work without permission.
To be effective there must be a way to enforce copyrights protections.
Granted by the US constitution article 1, section 8.
No publication or registration or other action in the Copyright Office is required to secure copyright.
Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a work is “created” when it is fixed in a copy for the first time.
The use of a copyright notice is no longer required under the U. S. law, although it is often beneficial because it informs the public that the work is protected by copyright, identifies the copyright owner, and shows the year that it was first sold or distributed to the public.
Any written work (Books)
Any music work (Sound records)
Any drawing or pictures (Painting)
Any motion picture (Movies)
Any architecture drawing
Ideas
Procedures
Processes
Systems
Methods of operating
Concepts
Principles
Discoveries
Works consists entirely of information that is commonly available and contains no originality (for example, standard calendars, standard measures and rulers, lists or tables compiled from public documents or other common sources).
Right to reproduce the work.
Right to prepare derivative works.
Right to distribute copies for sale.
Right to perform AV works publicly.
Right to display musical and artistic works publicly.
Copyright protection is automatic. The act of creating the work also creates the Copyright.
There is no requirement to register for Copyright, although in the US and most other countries it is important to show (assert) that copyright is claimed in a particular work.
This is easily enough done by clearly marking any original work with the symbol © followed by the date from which copyright is claimed and the owner of the copyright.
Example of a copyright notice for your own book
Copyright
Author book
Title book
© 2012, Author
Self publishing
(Possibly email address or contact data)
All rights reserved.
The copyright is in force when the work is “fixed” which includes saving to disk or writing it on paper.
Works in the public domain are those whose intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, or are inapplicable.
Everything published before 1923 is in the public domain.
Darwin’s books on natural selection, Newton’s laws, the works of Shakespeare and Beethoven, The King James Bible, most of the early silent films, have no copyright.
Authors can choose to put work in the public domain by including a notice that the item is in the public domain.
Example: Wikipedia
Use of material for news reporting, teaching and research.
- You can use excerpts from a book to write a review of it.
Limitations include effect of the use on potential value of work.
- You can’t reproduce whole chapters of the book for reviewing purposes without permission.
Licenses:
- Allow people to use content under certain terms.
Open License:
- Others can use but must credit original source.
- Any version that others create must also have the open license and be usable by others as well.
- Example: (http://www.wikipedia.org/)
Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed form.
The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work.
Only the author or those deriving their rights through the author can rightfully claim copyright.
In the case of works made for hire, the employer and not the employee is considered to be the author.
A copyright lasts for life plus 70 years for individuals for anything on or after 1978.
A copyright lasts for 95 years for corporate authors after publication for anything on or after 1978. (It is 120 years after creation if not published.)
Works published before 1978 and after 1923 are protected for 95 years.
Handled through US Copyright Office, a division of the Library of Congress.
NOT required for protection to attach.
IS required before an action for infringement may be brought.
Upon discovery of infringement, usually mail a cease and desist letter.
Place infringer on notice.
Not as easy as it may seem!
It must prove ownership (i.e., a valid US registration).
It must prove access to copyrighted work by defendant.
It must prove “substantial similarity” of infringing work to copyrighted work.
Defendant’s intent and knowledge are not relevant.
Identical rip-offs are rare.
The more variations between original and “copy”, the more difficult the proof of infringement becomes.