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Original works of authorship fixed in a tangible
medium of expression
 | A person's unique way
of expressing something
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| Requires only a
minimum amount of creativity
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| Does not protect
underlying ideas or facts
|
Leaving facts and ideas free for public use
helps copyright achieve its purpose, if the public can gain access to the work.
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|
Today, it begins at the moment of fixation in a
tangible medium of expression and ends at the expiration of 70 years after the death of
the author. Different rules apply to
older works, however, and there are special rules for works-for-hire.
| Protection is
automatic
|
| Copyright notice is
not required
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| Registration is not
required unless copyright owner wishes to bring suit
 | Registration benefits
- statutory damages and attorneys' fees
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|
| Terms of Protection
| Works created during
or after 1978
| Life of the author
plus 70 years
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| Works for hire: 95
years after publication or 120 years after creation, whichever is shorter
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|
| Works published
before 1978
| 95 years after
publication
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| If published before
1964, 28 years after publication + 67 more years if renewed
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|
| Works created before
1978 but not published
| Life of the author
plus 70 years or 2003, whichever is longer
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|
| Recent changes in Copyright Term
Extension Act allow libraries to use certain works in their last 20 years of protection
|
When copyright terms were shorter and it
required a definitive act to bring a work under federal protection, copyright law's
balance favored public access and use (the public domain) more than it does today. These
changes in the law evidence a strong shift in that balance.
|
| What Does it Mean to Owners?
Owners have exclusive rights to make copies,
create derivative works, distribute, display and perform works publicly. Certain artists
have rights of integrity and attribution (moral rights) in original works of art or
limited edition prints (200 or fewer).
These exclusive rights are an important part of the way copyright law achieves its
purpose. Along with the term of protection, they provide an incentive to authors to
create.
|
| What Does it Mean to Users?
If the law protects a work you wish to use, you
must ask for permission from the copyright owner unless your planned use is covered by one
of the law's exemptions, such as fair use.
| Fair use (17 USC 107)
|
| Library's special
exemption (108)
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| First sale doctrine
(109)
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| Educational
performances and displays (110)
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| Software backups
(117)
|
| Modifications for
blind and disabled (121)
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These limitations on copyright owners' rights,
and others not mentioned here, are critical to the achievement of copyright's purpose.
They are just as much a part of how copyright law improves our society by increasing
knowledge as the incentive to authors.
|
|
| Embodies First
Amendment concerns: criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, reasearch and
scholarship
|
| Addresses market
failures: permits important uses that don't make economic sense
|
Both of these functions of fair use strongly
support the achievement of copyright's purpose by permitting certain uses of works that do
not significantly affect the owner's incentive. The fair use statute builds in to the fair
use test ample consideration for the copyright owner's interests.
|
| Most Copyright Cases Involve
Literary Works, Music or Software
|
| No Cases Directly Address
Educational Fair Use or Transmission of Images
| Commercial fair use
cases - trend is towards narrowing the scope of fair use
|
| On the other hand,
Sega/Nintendo cases indicate that it is fair use to make a copy in order to get at
unprotected elements or make a permitted use
|
| Bridgeman v. Corel -
exact duplication of public domain work lacks sufficient originality to qualify for
copyright protection under Britain's copyright law
|
|
| Section 110(2) Permits Transmission
of Images
| Copies necessary to a
digital transmission may be fair use
| UT's Rules of Thumb
would permit digitizing analog images so long as a digital image is not available at a
fair price
|
|
| Digital Millennium Copyright
Act, passed in October 1998, called for the Copyright Office, with input from
educators and copyright owner industries, to report to Congress by the end of April 1999,
its recommendations for changing Section 110 to facilitate the use of digital technologies
in Distance Education
|
| The Copyright Office issued its Report in May
1999:
| The Copyright Office
Report recommends to Congress that it change the law, and nearly every recommendation is
one that was urged by the user community (eliminating distinctions among categories of
works and limits regarding where a transmission may be received, for example) except for
the following:
| portion limitations
on audiovisual works;
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| excluding
"instructional materials" from the exemption (works for which the primary market
would be educational institutions);
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| making the use of
technologies that prevent recipient copying a condition for qualifying for the exemption
|
|
| Congress has not
acted, however, reportedly because copyright owners, particularly the entertainment and
publishing industries, oppose the Copyright Office's recommendations.
|
| Kenneth Crews of the
Copyright Management Center at IUPUI has written a helpful summary of the Report
|
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| Digital Millennium Copyright Act
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