Has it’s foundations in Article one Art. 1 § 8 – The portion that says “To promote the progress of science and the useful arts  by securing for limited time to authors and inventors the exclusive rights to respective writings and discoveries.

Bold and underline = patents and underlined =  copyrights

Can also find  the copyright law in 17 USC § 101 et seq.

37 CFR  sec 201

and theyre are also circulars  from the copyright office that provides information regarding copyright law and provides great summaries of copyright law.

What article of the constitution discusses copyright law?

What does it say?

Art. 1 § 8 – The portion that says “To promote the progress of science and the useful arts  by securing for limited time to authors and inventors the exclusive rights to respective writings and discoveries.

Bold and underline = patents and underlined =  copyrights

How many sets of copyright law are there?

What are they?

Under copyright law, there are two sets of laws that are currently active. Ther are some that are existing under the prior law and some that excist under the current law b/c copyrights have  have a very long life.

1976 Copyright Act- the current law. It has an effective date of 1/1/1978.

The older act is 1909 © Act (don’t worry about its effective date)

1976 Copyright Act- the current law. It has an effective date of 1/1/1978.

Copyrights under each act has different paraemeters associated which is why we have 1909 copyrights today.

The copyright office has an appeal level within its own stucutre b/c its an administrative office.

It starts with the person (typically atty but may be para) who reviews your copyright to see if its registerable. And you can appeal and then you appeal to the registrar. From there you can either appeal to the US DC (for same reason in tm law) by going to district cout or skip this and go to the US APP Ct and then up to the Supreme Ct.

So you can sue  the government in district court to grant you a copy right .

Under the 1976 act, your © rights exist at the time of creation of the subject  matter underlying the work.

The act of creation can be done over a period of time (i.e. writing war and peace). With works that take a long time, the date of creation is the day it is completed.

But there are many copyrights that lead up to that large copyright. So when you start writing the the book, then you get a copyright for what you have s tarted to write thus far. But typically people only care about the last one.

Under 1909 act- the copy right exists at one of two times: 1) at date of registration or at  2) the date of publication

So today when you start working on them and save them, then they are already a copyright but before, you had to wait.

Under 1976 Act- the term of the copyright is either 1) life of author + 70years or 2) for a work made for hire, it is 95 years from the date of publication or 120 yrs from the date of creation. (this is only when it is made by a person under the employment of a business, etc.).

What is the life of a copyright under the 1909 act?

How did this function?

Under 1909- you have two tersm 1) for 28 years and 2) for  another 28 years. So then you would have to find a renewal in between the two terms. You would have to physically file a paper with the copyright office. You had to ask for the other 28 years so your possible term is a total of 56 years (but only if you ask for the second 28 years).

All copyrights expires on Dec. 31, XXX of the year they expire

If you have a copyright under the 1909 act and it was still valid when the law changed, then the law extended the validity of that copyright to 95 years from the date of publication/registraiont (from the start of the copyright).

If it was not still alive as of 1/1/78, then it was no eligible for this extension,, but then  the copyright had simply expired.

So if you would have been eligible if you renewed your copyright but fialed to renew it, then it would not be eligible for extension.

What happened to 1909 copyrights in 1991?

How does this effect what paralegals need to do when looking at copyright issues?

Then in 1991, there was still the problem of the renewal b/c  even if you were in your first term under the 1909 act, after the 1/1/78 date, then your 1905 copyright expired if you failed to renew so then the copyright wiould still expire.

So in 1991 Congress fixed this but creating an automatic renewal and that it would be like you filed even though you never did it, so you got it automatically.

So if you were in your first 28 year period in 1991, then you would automatically get the renewal, but if you failed  to renew before this 1991 period and your 28 renewal period was after 1/1/78 but before the 1991 switch over to the automatic renewal, and you didn’t renew, then your copyright would expire.

So if you have something that is older, then you need to take a look a the copyriht to figure out whether or not the copyright is still in force

What are the rights for a copyright from 1921?

1950?

Anything from 1921 or earlier, you can download it because the copyright as expired. So anything from 1921 or earlier, it is in the public domain.

Anything that was from 1950, may or maynot be in public domain depending on if  it was ever renewed within the time period

What happens once copyrights expire?

How did this relate to failure to renew under the 1909 act?

Once a copyright expires, it falls into the public domain so if you forgot to renew, it would be free for anyone to use.

1) Work must be original

2) Is it fixed in tangible form? (it must be in tangible form)

3) Is this a work of authorship (certain things do not qualify as being protectable under copyright law).

What does originality mean in the context of copyrights?

Does this mean that two or more people can create the same thing?

Originiality means that it was not copied from someone else. So, you cannot get a copyright for Romeo and Juliet because shakespear wrote it long ago.

Original means that it was created originally by a person, it does not mean that no one has ever done it (so i.e. taking pictures of monuments- everyone takes the exact same photo but each photo is original to them so each person holds a copyright).

It is possible for two or more people to have created the same thing and the work is original to both of them

It has to be fixed in tangible form (recorded in electronic medium or fixed in tangible form- i.e. written on a picture)(. So if it’s just an idea, then it’s just an idea and not copyrightable because it’s not in a tangible form, if you wrote it down on a piece of paper, then it is .

1) literary

2) music

3) audio visual works

4) softwares

5) two and 3 dimensional image in art (so this includes sculpture)

6) choreographies (a series of dance steps arranged in a particular order- this will be things that are produced for the statge or audio visual). Coreographers can write down the steps in a symbolic order and that is fixed form so then you can copyright the dance moves.

7) Architecture- you can protect the blue prints and both the way that thebuilding appears (it’s viewed as a very large 3-d sculpture.

8) dramatic work (plays)- dramatic works have stage direction and the stage direction that is associated with the diaglogue is copyrightable and part of the work—this makes it different than literary works.

9) fireworks

1) ideas

            there is a something called the idea-expression dichotomy (the idea is not protectable of the copyright law but the expression of that idea is protectable).

2) Blank forms (e.g. a bank check or a calendar).- the idea is that there are certain forms that we have to have for everyone to use so we say that we cannot protect blank forms b/c it would be crazy if everyone had to have a different check. But the art work on the check is protectable but the check itself is not protecta le.

3) public domain- if the work is already in the public domain then it cannot be copyrightable again. And the copyright can never be resurrected and once it is gone it is gone forever.

4) Facts are not copyrightable under the law b/c you need to have access to facts and use facts. The expression of groups of facts are protectable under copyright law (i.e. history book). The expression of the facts in a certain order and the commentary along with it is protectable but the collection and the way in which those facts are expressed  can be protectable. So the fact that hurrican rita got to over 100mph winds is not protectable but ifyou make a news tory about it, it is protectable.

5) computing or measuring devices (i.e. rule is not copyrightable because if you could, then you would all have to have a a different way of measuring things.

6) functional devise ( functional things by its very nature cannot be copyrightable. Like tms this is usually decided by the court after the fact).

7) formulas or equasions or recipes- everyone should be able to use these- again you can  write about it in a book and the way you write it and discuss it would be copyrightable but not the formula.

For recipes you can prevent the person from copying the recipe but you can’t prevent them from making the cookies. This can include the order of the recipes in a book

What is a derivative work?

How is it or not copyrightable?

A derivative work or adaptation- new matieral has been added to a pre-existing work. So the thing that is being added is the thing that is potentially copyrightable  by law but you couldn’t copy right the thing you adapted from. So just the new material added. An exmple of this would be taking a b&W version of Casablanca and then it is colorized- then you could cget a copyright for the colorized verson. If then someone else came along you could then  change all the colors and make it still another copyright.

So for translations then you oculd copyright your translation and then someone else could copyright a different translation of the same thing.

This can also be different musical scores that are altered and changed. This gives you only the right to the new way its scored.

Dominant vs. subservient- the orginal work is dominant to the new work (subservient) so If I create a colorized version of your movie, then the person who originally made the movie can say that you can’t use their material because you’ve trampled  their rights. So your copyright might be valid for you, it could still  be subservient to someone else so you could be stopped by that person who owns the original copy right from using theirs

What are exclusive rights?

What should this not be confused with?

Exclusive (Exclusionary) rights available under copyright law. The rights that you get under copyright law are technically exclusionary rights meaning that when you have them then you can exclude or prevent others from doing whatever it is that you have protected.

Exclusive does not mean exclusionary. So my right is to prevent our from reproducing my book. So I as the copyright owner can exclude you from copying the books (exclusionary) but I may not necessarily  have the exclusive right to stop you from doing it.

What is a compliation vs. a collection?

Examples?

So compilations – a group of things which of themselves are not copyrightable under the law

Collection- group of things that are copyrightable but that are then collected and the collection (i.e. the book) is also a copyright.

So like in time magazine, each article and each photo is copyrightable in and of itself and then the collection of them in that order is collectible.

So if you have a book of copyrightable essays from the civil ware and then you use them to use in a book, someone else can put them in a different book but each book is separately copyrightable so you could not copy the other persons organization but still have the same essays.

But if  it’s the Guinness book of world records in the Guinness book, then they are facts and they themselves aren’t protectable but the assembly of them is protectable (this would be a compilation).