An exploration of the history and rules of US copyright law, public domain and fair use.

1. Copyright
Fall, 2015

2. What is copyright
• Protection granted by Federal Law to authors
and artists to guard their creative works from
theft.
• Works are protected for the life of the author
plus 70 years.
• A business is the author when one of their
employees is the creator. This is called
“corporate authorship” or “made for hire”.
• Protected for 95 years from publication.

3. US Constitution
• Article I – Section 8
• Congress shall have 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
• Copyright originally lasted for 14 years with another
14 year renewal.

4. Copyright Law
• Title 17 of the U.S. Code
• 17 USC § 102
• (a) Copyright protection subsists, in accordance with this
title, in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible
medium of expression, now known or later developed,
from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or
otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of
a machine or device.

5. What is Public Domain?
• Public Domain is a work no longer owned by
anyone and capable of being used by
everyone.
• How long to public domain?
• Originally (1790) 14 years with a 14 year extension
• 1909 – expanded to 28 years with a 28 year extension
• 1976 – expanded to 50 years for authors and 75 years for
corporate authors
• 1998 – expanded to 70 years for authors and 95 years for
corporate authors
• Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA)

6. Mickey Mouse
• First appeared in
“Steamboat Willie” in
1928.
• By 1928 copyright law,
should have become
public domain in 1984.
• By 1976 law should have
become public domain in
2003.
• By 1998 law should
become public domain in
2023.

7. US Constitution
• Article I – Section 8
• Congress shall have 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
• Copyright originally lasted for 14 years with another
14 year renewal.

8. “Happy Birthday to You”
• Written as “Good Morning to All” by
schoolteachers Mildred & Patty Hill in 1893.
• Became “Happy Birthday to You” in a songbook
in 1924.
• After becoming popular, was published and
copyrighted in 1935 by younger sister Jessica.
• Copyright should have expired in 1991, but was
extended in 1976 to 2010 and again in 1998 to
2030.
• Was owned by Time/Warner and earned about
$2 million per year.

9. “Happy Birthday to You”
• Copyright should have expired in 1991, but was
extended in 1976 to 2010 and again in 1998 to
2030.
• Rights purchased by Time/Warner since 1988
and earned bout $2 million per year.
• In September, 2015, a Federal judge ruled that
the copyright from 1935 was invalid and no
longer enforceable.
• Time/Warner may have to pay back royalties
earned since 1988.

10. Types of Works Protected
• 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.

11. Rights of the Author
• Right to make copies (Duplication)
• Right to sell copies (Distribution)
• Right to adapt into another format, media, or
genre
• Public performance
• Public display
• Authors can sell these rights with limits on
location, time, or format.

12. What is not protected?
• (b) In no case does copyright protection for an
original work of authorship extend to any idea,
procedure, process, system, method of
operation, concept, principle, or discovery,
regardless of the form in which it is described,
explained, illustrated, or embodied in such
work.

13. What is not protected?
• Recipes
• However, a cookbook is protected
• Facts
• Works by the federal government
• Functional Objects
• Furniture or Clothing
• Fashion Designs
• Protected through Trademarks and/or Patents
• Perfumes

14. Patents & Trademarks
• Patents
• Protects inventions
• Trademarks
• Protects logos or symbols used by organizations
and business to represent themselves or their
products.

15. Limits of Author’s Rights
• First Sale Doctrine
• Once a copy is sold the author no longer has any
rights regarding the re-sell of that copy.
• (Author maintains the right to control reproduction
and adaptation.)
• Music companies sued Used CD stores in 90’s but lost
due to First Sale Doctrine.

16. Fair Use
• 17 USC §107
• "the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use
by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any
other means specified by that section, for purposes such
as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching
(including multiple copies for classroom use),
scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of
copyright."

17. Fair Use
• “Fair Use” is what allows students, researchers,
and scholars to make copies of copyrighted
works without penalty.
• Four factors to determine Fair Use:
• purpose and character of the use
• nature of the copyrighted work
• the amount and substantiality of the portion used in
relation to the whole
• the effect of the use on the potential market

18. US Copyright Office
• A department of the Library of Congress
• Under authority of the Librarian of Congress
• Advises Congress:
• Intellectual Property
• Drafting Copyright Legislation
• Compliance with Multilateral Agreements
• Berne Convention
• Works w/Executive Branch Agencies
• Dept. of State, Dept. of Commerce

19. DMCA
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act
• Made law in 1998
• Section 1201 "prohibits gaining unauthorized access to a
work by circumventing a technological protection
measure . . .”
• Copyright Management System
• Protects ISP’s from liability for actions by their
subscribers if they assist copyright holders in
shutting down infringements.

20. DMCA - Exception
• Authorized by the Librarian of Congress in
2012
• Allows for circumventing of technological protection
measures for several purposes including:
• Electronic Distribution of Literary Works for Assistive
Technologies
• Interoperability of Wireless Telephone Handsets
• Commentary, Criticism & Educational Use
• Closed Captioning & Descriptive Audio

21. How to Copyright
• Put work into a tangible medium
• Print, photograph, digital
• “set in a form in which it can be perceived either
directly or with the aid of a device.”
• You are not required to register or even put a
copyright notice.
• © or Copyright 2006 by Scott Lee
• Registering with the US Copyright Office gives
you stronger protection.
• http://www.copyright.gov/