Copyright

On January 1, 1978, a new copyright statute came into effect in the United States. Some highlights from the law are given here. For specific details about the law or to gain copies of the statute and regulations, send a specific written request to the following:  Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20559.

Copyright  Protection

Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the authors of “original works of authorship” including photographs.  This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.  The Copyright Act generally gives the owner of the copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following:

• To reproduce the copyrighted work

• To prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted  work

• To distribute copies of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership or by rental, lease, or lending

• To display the copyrighted work publicly in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other photographic work

It is illegal for anyone to violate the rights provided to an owner of a copyright. These rights, however, are not unlimited in scope. The Copyright Act establishes limitations on these rights.  In some cases, these limitations are specified exemptions from copyright liability. Generally however, it is unlawful to reproduce, without written consent of the copyright owner, any material bearing a notice of copyright. The guiding rule in copying is to secure written permission from the copyright owner before starting work

What  Is  Protected

Copyright protection exists for original works of authorship when they become fixed in a tangible form of expression. The fixation does not need to be directly perceptible, so long as it may be communicated with the aid of a machine or device. Copyrightable works include the  following  categories:

• 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 imaging works and sound recordings

This list is illustrative and is not inclusive of the categories of copyrightable works.  These categories should be viewed quite broadly.

What  Is  Not  Protected

Several categories of material are generally not eligible for statutory copyright protection.  Among others, include the following: 

• Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression

• Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents

• Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration

• Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and containing no original authorship; for example: standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rules, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources.

Copyright  Secured  Automatically upon  Creation

The way that copyright protection is secured is frequently misunderstood.  No publication or registration or other action in the Copyright Office is required to secure a copyright under the law.  Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a work is “created” when it is fixed in a copy or imaging recording for the first time.  In general, “copies” are material objects from which a work can be read or visually perceived either directly or with the aid of a machine or device, such as books, manuscripts, sheet music, film, videotape, or microfilm.  Phonograph records are material objects embodying fixations of sounds (excluding, by statutory definition, motion picture  sound  tracks), such as audio tapes and phonograph disks.  Thus, for example, a song (the “work”) can be fixed in sheet music (copies) or in audio recordings, or both.

Notice  of  Copyright

When a work is published under the authority of the copyright owner, a notice of copyright should be placed on all publicly distributed copies.  This notice is required even on works published outside of the United States.  Omission or errors will not necessarily result in forfeiture of the copyright.  Therefore, just because a copyrightable material does not have a copyright notice does not mean it is not copyrighted.  However, infringers misled by the omission or error of copyright notice will be shielded from liability.

How  Long  Copyright  Protection  Lasts

The copyright law changed in 1978.  The time that the copyright on original material expires is determined by when it was created.

Works Originally Copyrighted on or after January 1, 1978

A work that is created (fixed in tangible form for the first time) on or after January 1, 1978, is automatically protected from the moment of its creation.  It is ordinarily given a term enduring for the author’s life, plus an additional 50 years after the author’s death.  In the case of a joint work prepared by two or more authors that did not work for hire, the term lasts for 50 years after the last surviving author’s death.  For works made for hire and for anonymous and pseudonymous (fictitious  name) works (unless the author's identity is revealed in Copyright Office records), the duration of copyright is 75 years from publication or 100  years from creation, whichever is shorter.  Works that were created before the 1978 law came into effect, but were neither published nor registered for copyright before January 1, 1978, have been automatically brought under the statute and are now provided federal  copyright protection.  The duration of copyright for these works is generally computed in the same way as for new works: the life plus 50 and the 75 or 100 year terms apply to them as well.  However, all works in this category are guaranteed at least 25 years of statutory protection.

Works Copyrighted before January 1, 1978

Under the law in effect before 1978, copyright was secured either on the date a work was published or on the date of registration if the work was registered in unpublished form.  In either case, the copyright endured for a first term of 28 years from the date it was secured.  During the last (28th) year of the first term, the copyright was eligible for renewal.  The new copyright law has extended the renewal term from 28 to 47 years for copyrights that were still in existence on January 1, 1978.

International  Copyright  Protection

There is no such thing as an “international copyright” that will automatically protect an author's writings throughout the entire world.  Protection against unauthorized use in a particular country depends, basically, on the national laws of that country.  However, most countries do offer protection to foreign works under certain conditions, and these conditions have been greatly simplified by international copyright treaties and conventions.