Copyright

“ Our tendency of course is to focus on authors when we think about intellectual property. Many of us are authors ourselves: reading a case about copyright we can empathize readily with a plaintiff's feeling for the effort he has put in, his need to control his work, and his natural desire to reap the fruits of his own labor. In this Essay, however, I shall look at the way we think about actual, potential and putative infringers of copyright, those whose freedom is or might be constrained by others' ownership of songs, plays, words, images and stories. ”

“ The question of copyright, Sir, like most questions of civil prudence, is neither black nor white, but grey. The system of copyright has great advantages and great disadvantages; and it is our business to ascertain what these are, and then to make an arrangement under which the advantages may be as far as possible secured, and the disadvantages as far as possible excluded. ”

“ When a man takes out a copyright for any of his writings or works, he impliedly agrees that at the expiration of that copyright such writings or works shall go to the public, and become public property. ”

“ Our copyright laws urgently need revision. They are imperfect in definition, confused and inconsistent in expression; they omit provision for many articles which, under modern reproductive processes, are entitled to protection; they impose hardships upon the copyright proprietor which are not essential to the fair protection of the public; they are difficult for the courts to interpret and impossible for the Copyright Office to administer with satisfaction to the public. ”

“ Definition of copyright The copyright to literary or artistic work consists in the exclusive right to dispose of the same, to publish, sell, and translate the same, or to authorize its translation, and to reproduce the same in any manner either entirely or partially. ”

“ We as a society give limited property rights to creators to encourage them to produce science and culture; at the same time, we guarantee that all works eventually will become part of the public domain and, in the meantime, we give other creators and speakers the opportunity to use copyrighted material without permission or payment in some circumstances. ”

“ No copyright vests in the proprietor of a collective work unless the author is employed under a contract of service or apprenticeship, or there is an assignment in writing; and when the copyright vests in the proprietor of a periodical by reason of a contract of service or apprenticeship, the author may restrain separate publication. The passing of the copyright by reason of the work having been executed on commission is confined to the cases of engravings, photographs and portraits. The self-governing dominions are given a free hand in copyright matters. ”

“ Under the British Copyright Laws, which extend to Canada, a British or Canadian author of a literary work has the undisputed right to his manuscript; he may withhold, or he may communicate it, and in communicating it he may limit the number of persons to whom it is imparted, and impose such restrictions as he pleases upon the use and printing of the work. ”

“ Where copyright in any work has been infringed, the owner of the copyright shall, except as otherwise provided by this Act, be entitled to all such remedies by way of injunction or interdict, damages, accounts, and otherwise, as are or may be conferred by law for the infringement of a right. ”

“ But in [Pg 225] making copyright a sequent to publication (sec. 9) and providing (sec. 2) "that nothing in this Act shall be construed to annul or limit the right of the author or proprietor of an unpublished work, at common law or in equity, to prevent the copying, publication, or use of such unpublished work," it makes it at least probable that the author of an artistic or cognate work who simply exhibits, does not surrender the right to copyright. ”

“ The new British measure specifies that "the author of a work shall be the first owner of the copyright," except where an engraving, photograph, or portrait is ordered for valuable consideration or where work is done in the course of employment. The owner may assign the copyright in writing, "either wholly or partially, and either generally or subject to limitations to any particular country, and either for the whole term of the copyright or for any part thereof, and may grant any interest in the right by license" ”

“ No right of eminent domain in respect to copyrights is asserted by the United States, and the provision means only that material, otherwise copyrightable, furnished by a public officer or otherwise to the Government, becoming the property of the Government, is put freely at the service of the people. ”

“ First, assume that a work is protected by copyright—even if it does not include a copyright notice—unless you know it’s in the public domain. Second, copyright notices that purport to tell you what you may or may not do can’t limit your fair use rights or other rights under the Copyright Act, but they may allow you to do more than the law would otherwise permit. Third, if you agree by contract not to use a work in a particular way, you will abide by the contract. ”

“ The copyright under the new law protects (sec. 3) "all the copyrightable component parts of the work copyrighted." The practice of some publishers in copyrighting a magazine and also specific articles or engravings seems, therefore, a work of doubtful expediency. The new law specifically gives to the proprietor of " composite works or periodicals" (sec. 3) "all the rights in respect thereto which he would have if each part were individually copyrighted." ”

“ This means that if you research a copyright question, you need only use federal sources of law such as the United States Code and decisions from federal courts.
Copyright does not place an author’s work in a lockbox. The primary purpose of copyright is not to compensate creators. The U.S. Supreme Court has stated, many times, that copyright is a means to a greater societal end: the dissemination and promotion of knowledge. [10] As librarians, we promote the dissemination of knowledge. ”

“ Once contacted, some copyright owners will give permission for free, while others will require a fee or seek to impose conditions on your use. Good faith negotiation will probably result in a satisfactory outcome, but some license fees will be too high for you, or the owner simply won't want her work used a particular way. If you can't get permission and no copyright exceptions apply, then you will just have to find an alternative to the material you wanted to use. ”

“ PUBLICATION, NOTICE, REGISTRATION AND DEPOSIT General principles
Copyright may inhere as a natural right, as under English common law before the statute of Anne, without record or formalities, but also without statutory protection; or formalities may be required only as a prerequisite to protection by actions at law; or formalities may be required to validate and secure the copyright. English formalities belong to the second class. American formalities are of the third class, and without them copyright does not exist. ”

“ It would, of course, be impossible for a publisher to pay an artist the sum at which he values his entire copyright, simply that he might reproduce his picture in the form of a black-and-white block in a magazine, and it has consequently become quite common for the artist to grant a licence for any and every particular form of reproduction as it may be required, so that he may grant the right of reproduction in one particular form in one particular publication, and even for a particular period of time, reserving to himself thus the right to grant similar licences to other publishers. ”

“ Those who invade copyright are regarded as knaves who take the bread out of the mouths of deserving men. Everybody is well pleased to see them restrained by the law, and compelled to refund their ill-gotten gains. No tradesman of good repute will have anything to do with such disgraceful transactions. Pass this law: and that feeling is at an end. Men very different from the present race of piratical booksellers will soon infringe this intolerable monopoly. Great masses of capital will be constantly employed in the violation of the law. Every art will be employed to evade legal pursuit; ”

“ When, as in the case of a cyclopædia, many persons are employed at the offices of an employer, using his materials and facilities, and especially if on salary, the courts would undoubtedly uphold his full proprietorship in their work. Where outside persons contribute special articles, the presumption would probably be that the ownership of the copyright, for that special publication, vested in the employer, but that neither he, without the author's consent, nor the author, without his consent, could publish the article in other competing shape. ”

“ I think so, provided the talking-machine record was inserted in sections 5 and 18.
There should be no question but that the particular characteristic utterances of a singer, or recitationist, or of an actor, or of an orator, or the particular instrumentation of a pianist, or leader of an orchestra, etc., independent of the composition itself, whether it is copyrighted or not, should be equally entitled to protection, as a photograph or reproduction of a work of art. ”

“ It, of course, does no such thing, and the copyright of any picture sold in these circumstances, without the necessary document from the purchaser, must be lost to the artist, and pass irrevocably into the public domain.
In a work of art the work itself and the copyright are two totally distinct properties, and may be held by different persons. The conditions differ materially from those of a work of literature, in which as a rule there is no value apart from publication. ”

“ The principal requisites to secure copyright protection included: (1) providing notice of copyright in proper form; (2) registration of copyright in the work; and (3) depositing of a copy of the work with the Library of Congress. [157] Authors who published their works without strictly observing the applicable formalities forfeited copyright protection; [158] indeed, courts often referred to the author’s failure to comply with formalities as a “dedication” of the work to the public domain. ”

“ The duration of copyright was in the early printers' privileges for a short term, as for seven years, except in France, where copyrights were in perpetuity until the act of the National Assembly; in modern times the copyright term has been lengthened until a term extending through and beyond the life of the author has been adopted by thirty-seven countries, or more than half of those which have copyright laws, of which four assure perpetual copyright. ”

“ The title, and this section of the act, obviously consider and treat this copyright as property; something that is capable of being transferred; and the right of the assignee is protected equally with that of the author; and the object of the act, and all its provisions purport to be for securing the right. Protection is the avowed and real purpose for which it is passed. There is nothing here admitting the construction, that a new right is created. ”

“ I presume that all my readers know the meaning of the word copyright. A man's copyright, or right in his copy, is that amount of legal possession in the production of his brains which has been secured to him by the laws of his own country and by the laws of others. ”

“ The U.S. Copyright Office will register an original work of authorship, provided that the work was created by a human being. The copyright law only protects “the fruits of intellectual labor” that “are founded in the creative powers of the mind.” Trade-Mark Cases, 100 U.S. 82, 94 (1879) . Because copyright law is limited to “original intellectual conceptions of the author,” the Office will refuse to register a claim if it determines that a human being did not create the work. ”

“ The common law copyright arises upon the creation of any work of art, be it a first sketch or the finished product. [3] This common law right protects against unauthorized copying, publishing, vending, performing, and recording. [4] The common law copyright is terminated by publication of the work [5] by the proprietor [6] of the copyright. Upon termination of the common law copyright, the work falls into the public domain if statutory protection is not obtained by the giving of the requisite notice. ”

“ Formalities The acknowledgment of a copyright obtained in one State, in conformity with its laws, shall produce its effects of full right in all the other States without the necessity of complying with any other formality, provided always there shall appear in the work a statement that indicates the reservation of the property right. ”

“ The CC0 license includes a brief “Statement of Purpose” explaining the licensor’s intent in adopting the license:
Certain owners wish to permanently relinquish those [copyright
and related] rights to a Work for the purpose of contributing to a commons of creative, cultural and scientific works (“Commons”) that the public can reliably and without fear of later claims of infringement build upon, modify, incorporate in other works, reuse and redistribute as freely as possible in any form whatsoever and for any purposes, including without limitation commercial purposes. ”

“ Most of them, I think, except those who are purely authors and creators, like the arts associations, have at some time or other been on each side of a copyright controversy. In their business some of them are owners of copyrights and desire to enforce their copyright as far as possible, and most of them are also desirous at times of using literary or artistic matter which is protected by copyright, and they desire that the law shall be precise, so that they can understand their rights and not unwittingly be guilty of offense. ”

“ There can be no such thing as a copyright for a special purpose or for a special locality, or under other special conditions, for there can be only one copyright, and that a general copyright, in any one work. But specific contracts can be made, enforceable under the law of contracts, as for the sale of a copyrighted book within a certain territory, provided such contracts or limitations are not contrary to other laws. ”