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Copyright Law Basics
Copyright law is a subset of intellectual law, a field of law often overlooked by the
general public. Intellectual law includes copyright, trademark, and patent laws.
Anyone who creates, composes, writes, devises, discovers, and invents is covered
under intellectual law in the USA.
However, other countries do not always recognize or define intellectual laws in the
same manner as the USA.
Why is this law even mentioned here?
What possible impact can the copyright law have on the daily managerial operations
of a business and its website?
Copyright law is vital to the success of many organizations in the USA. It is one of
the laws that most people encounter on a daily basis. All managers need to understand
copyright law so to at least detect any potential violations of it within their organizations.
Certainly, most people do not intentionally violate copyright laws. Before actually discussing
copyright law issues, this article will first review some basics regarding this law.
About the American copyright law
The American copyright law is encompassed in Title 17 of the United States Code (USC),
with the last significant update in 1978. What exactly does the copyright law say and what
intellectual property is protected by this statute? Works that are considered to be protected
under the copyright statute are the communication of originality, creativity and intellectual
rights and property that must meet three criteria ("fundamental concepts") as
per Title 17 USC:
- fixation
- originality
- expression
Copyright protection is affixed immediately and exists at the inception of the work's
creation per common law. The work does not have to be published to be protected by this statute.
What is copyright protected per Title 17 USC §102(a)
- literary works;
- musical works, including any accompanying words;
- dramatic works, including any accompanying music;
- pantomimes and choreographic works;
- pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;
- motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
- sound recordings; and architectural works
(per USC §102(a)).
Publication of the work does not have to actually entail distribution of the
published work (even if distributed, no sale is required) in order for the work to be
copyright protected. Unpublished works in the above categories are also afforded
copyright protection.
Ideas, theories, facts, concepts, principles, discoveries, procedures, processes,
systems, methods of operations, utilitarian works, government works, symbols, slogans,
titles (addressed under the trademark law), and machines or processes (addressed under
the patent law) are not protected under Title 17. Some of these items are protected under
patent or trademark laws and will be discussed in future That's a Law!? articles.
How to obtain a copyright and when to know when a piece of work is copyright
protected
All works created on or after March 1, 1989 do not require a notice of copyright
(it is still recommended) - copyright is automatically affixed, as a result of the U. S.
joining the international copyright treaty, The Berne Convention for the Protection of
Literary and Artistic Works. Works created prior to this date required copyright notice in
order to be secured under this law.
Notice is considered completed and "perceived visually" when all of the following
three elements are used, per Title 17:
" (1) use of © symbol, the word "Copyright", or abbreviation "Copr."
(P within a circle is the acceptable symbol for sound recordings);
(2) the year of first publication of the work;
(3) the name of the owner of copyright in the work."
For example, the copyright notice, © 1997-1999 KRL Consultants and Publishers, Inc.
appears on the bottom of this webpage.
Copyright notice may be affixed immediately after the work is created by the owner
who has the sole responsibility of providing copyright notice. All of the three components
must be included for proper notice -- any missing elements causes the copyright notice
to be omitted totally, but the work is still protected by the copyright law!
If a work has this notification, then there is no doubt as to the copyright status of
the work. However, works that do not bear adequate copyright notice are still protected
under this law, as of 3/1/89.
What the copyright statute enables the bearer
The owner of the copyright has a personal property right, which is governed by the
inheritance and ownership laws under the various state statutes and regulations. The
copyright bearer can be the creator(s) of the work, an entity for which creators created
the work for hire, anonymous, or pseudonymous. The copyright duration is 50 years
after the creator's death (for multiple authors, 50 years after the death of last surviving
creator) for works created on or after January 1, 1978 (the date of the last significant
change in this law).
For works made for hire", pseudonymous, and anonymous works the copyright
duration is 100 years from the creation date or 75 years from the first publication date,
whichever is shorter.
Must the works be registered or deposited with the Library of Congress?
Registration of the copyright protected work is a formality that is generally
optional for the owner of the copyright and not required for copyright protection
(one exception is for certain works published prior to March 1, 1989 -
see § 405 & 406 of Title 17 for more information).
The registration process provides the owner with the most noted advantage of instituting
a public record of copyright ownership. Registration is mandatory before an infringement
of copyright lawsuit may commence. For registration performed within three months after
initial publication, attorney's fees and statutory damages are obtainable in the event of a
subsequent infringement suit. For registration after this time period or non-registration,
awards are limited to actual damages and profits. Title 17 requires works published in the
U. S. to be deposited with the Library of Congress within 3 months of the first date of
publication. Title 17 defines 'publication' to be "the distribution of copies or phonorecords
of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental,
lease, or lending."
Copyright protected items in the Business' Information System
The following items are commonly found and used in the FIS environment and are
copyright protected unless expressly written by the author(s) for permission to use or copy:
- software including object (machine readable language) and source
(programming readable language) codes, regardless of the media type
(diskette, CD ROM's, tape); video tapes; audio tapes and compact discs;
- publications -- books, articles in journals, magazines, newsletters, newspapers,
manuals.
Employers and employees need to understand and respect the creativity of others and
not violate the copyrights of the owners. Title 17 does permit "fair use" of copyright
protected materials, depending on the purpose and amount of material for use and the user.
Educators generally have the ability to use more copyright protected works than do
for-profit entities.
Examples of copyright infringements
Some copyright infringements (assuming express permission of the copyright
owner was not granted) that managers are to be aware of are:
- copying of computer software not authorized by software licenses;
- photocopying of information (not "fair use") out of publications;
- copying video or audio tapes or compact discs;
- plagiarism in reports or other publications of the organization;
- copying and using portions of or another party's web page for purposes
in the organization (mere printing out of a web site for informational purposes
is not a copyright infringement).
Limiting exposures to copyright law violations
Implementing preventive measures in the workplace to block potential copyright
violations is possible but difficult to enforce. All organizations should create and
establish detailed policies and procedures for the prevention of copyright violations and
for the timely detection of copyright infringements. Therefore, detective measures with
severe consequences are the more likely remedies. Infringement lawsuits are a potentially
financially and infamously disastrous.
The objective of this article was to arm the manager with some basics regarding copyright
law and how to apply them to the workplace.
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TuffBaggs' Articles & News -- Copyright Law & Basics