4. Copyright
Constitution gives Congress the power “To
promote the Progress of Science and useful
Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors
and Inventors the exclusive Right to their
respective Writings and Discoveries”
5. Sources of Copyright Law
• 1976 Copyright Act
• Berne Convention
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998
• 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension
Act (CTEA)
6. Copyright
Protects “works of authorship fixed in a
tangible medium”
Must be sufficiently permanent to allow
perception, reproduction, etc.
Not protected: off-the-cuff speech,
improvised skit (if not recorded)
7. What Can Be Protected
Literary works, musical works, dramatic works,
pantomimes and choreographic works,
pictorial, graphic and sculptural works, motion
pictures and other audiovisual works, sound
recordings, architectural works
8. Requirements
• Fixed in a tangible medium
• Must owe origin to the author
• Must be intellectual work involved in its
creation
• Must be “creative” and “novel”
• Transcriptions not copyrightable
• Facts/ideas not copyrightable
• Slogans, titles (trademark)
• Sporting events not copyrightable (but
coverage is)
• Compilations not copyrightable
• Unless there is creativity involved
9.
10.
11. Rights of the Copyright
Holder
• (Works for hire normally owned by
employer)
• Can reproduce in any form for any reason
(or not)
• Create derivative works
• Distribute/perform/display
• Others must get permission
12. Is Copyright Too
Protective?
Economic v. Cultural tension . . .
SCOTUS has called copyright “the engine of
free expression,” but critics say it is in many
cases too protected.