Copyright Law
Ronald W. Staudt
Class 12
March 2, 2009
Amazon Retreats On Kindle's
Text-To-Speech Issue
BNA's Internet Law News - 3/2/09
Amazon won't fight the publishing industry
on the issue of whether the Kindle 2's
text-to-speech function violates copyright.
The retailer, which makes the popular
Kindle electronic-book reader, announced
late Friday that the company is modifying
systems to allow authors and publishers
to decide whether to enable Kindle's textto-speech function on a per-title basis.
[CNET]
Ownership
1. Initial ownership- intellectual v. muscular
Lindsay
2. Works made for hire: Economic concept
CCNV v. Reid
Teachers exception
Sound recordings
3. Wednesday
Joint works: Intellectual concept
Thomson v. Larson
Aalmuhammed
Gaiman
§ 201. Ownership of copyright
(a) Initial ownership. Copyright in a work
protected under this title vests initially in
the author or authors of the work. The
authors of a joint work are co-owners of
copyright in the work.
***
Lindsay v. R.M.S. Titanic
 “Defendants first argue that plaintiff cannot have any
protectable right …[because he] did not himself actually
photograph the wreckage. This argument, however,
does not hold water.”
 17 USC 101
A work is "fixed" in a tangible medium of
expression when its embodiment in a copy or
phonorecord, by or under the authority of the
author…
 Andrien? Geshwind?
Authorship as an Economic Concept:
Works Made for Hire
§ 201. Ownership of copyright
***
(b) Works made for hire. In the case of a
work made for hire, the employer or other
person for whom the work was prepared is
considered the author for purposes of this
title, and, unless the parties have expressly
agreed otherwise in a written instrument
signed by them, owns all of the rights
comprised in the copyright.
***
Authorship as an Economic Concept:
Works Made for Hire
A "work made for hire" is-(1) a work prepared by an employee within
the scope of his or her employment; or
(2) a work specially ordered or
commissioned for use as a contribution to a
collective work, as a part of a motion picture
or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as
a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an
instructional text, as a test, as answer
material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties
expressly agree in a written instrument signed
by them that the work shall be considered a
work made for hire. ***
Who is an employee?
CCNV v. Reid
Facts
Conflict in the circuits: 4 tests




right to control
actual control
common law agency
formal salaried employees
Control tests and 2 parts of 101
Legislative History
Predictability
CCNV v. Reid (cont.)
Applying the test- agency factors
 (“…right to control the manner and means by which the product is
accomplished.”)
 Source of tools
 Location of work
 Duration of relationship
 Discretion over hours of work
 Method of payment
 Hiring of assistants
 Is work part of regular business of hiring party
 Is hiring party a business
 Provision of employee benefits
 Tax treatment of hired party
 Skill required
 Right to control manner and means of creation
 Right to assign new projects
 Joint Authorship
 Questions p. 315- especially #4 on 316
Employee Created Works
Aymes v. Bonelli- software
Carter v. Helmsley-Spear – sculpture
Martha Graham School - dance
Within the scope of employment-software
Avtec—no
Cramer--yes
Genzmer--yes
Miller--yes
Roeslin--no
Quinn--no
Works for Hire
Teacher Exception
Timing of Contract for 9 categories
Schiller & Schmidt v. Nordisco Corpwriting must precede creation
Playboy Enterprises v. Dumasagreement must precede creation
Sound recordings & work
for hire… (see p. 327 gloss)
 In determining whether any work is eligible to be considered a
work made for hire under paragraph (2), neither the amendment
contained in section 1011(d) of the Intellectual Property and
Communications Omnibus Reform Act of 1999, as enacted by
section 1000(a)(9) of Public Law 106-113, nor the deletion of the
words added by that amendment-(A) shall be considered or otherwise given any legal
significance, or
(B) shall be interpreted to indicate congressional approval or
disapproval of, or acquiescence in, any judicial determination,
by the courts or the Copyright Office. Paragraph (2) shall be
interpreted as if both section 2(a)(1) of the Work Made For Hire
and Copyright Corrections Act of 2000 and section 1011(d) of the
Intellectual Property and Communications Omnibus Reform Act of
1999, as enacted by section 1000(a)(9) of Public Law 106-113,
were never enacted, and without regard to any inaction or
awareness by the Congress at any time of any judicial
determinations.
Sound recordings, in & out
 Act Nov. 29, 1999 (effective on enactment, as
provided by § 1012 of S. 1948, as enacted into law
by § 1000(a)(9) of such Act, which appears as a note
to this section) purported to amend para. (2) of the
definition relating to work made for hire by inserting
"as a sound recording," after "audiovisual work";
however, the insertion was made after "audiovisual
work," in order to effectuate the probable intent of
Congress.
2000. Act Oct. 27, 2000, § 2(a)(1) (effective as of
11/29/1999, as provided by § 2(b) of such Act, which
appears as a note to this section), in the definition of
"work made for hire", in para. (2), deleted "as a
sound recording," following "audiovisual work".