Copyright Law
Ronald W. Staudt
Class 2
January 26, 2009
Copyright © 2001, 2002 2004 2007 2008 Ronald W. Staudt
GLOBAL DIGITAL MUSIC SALES
UP 25 PERCENT
BNA's Internet Law News - 1/21/09
IFPI says that legitimate digital music sales grew
strongly in 2008 but were still dwarfed by the
scale of illegal downloads, despite industry
efforts to adapt to the Internet and offer more
choice to customers. …legal digital global sales
grew by an estimated 25 percent to $3.7 billion
in trade value, to account for about 20 percent
of the industry's global recorded music sales, up
from 15 percent in 2007. [Washington Post]
RIAA Trying to Hide Actions in Court
MyMediaMusings January 22, 2009
RIAA, the group perhaps most singly responsible for turning music fans
against the major labels, is currently suing a young man who is being
defended, in part, by a Harvard professor. In an attempt to shed some
light on the absurd arguments RIAA uses to make their case, the
defendants requested that the court allow the trial to be webcast live.
Tenenbaum’s attorneys had sought the Webcast, arguing that streaming the
hearing would allow the public to effectively attend the trial. The record
industry opposed the request on the grounds that the publicity could
prejudice a potential jury pool.
Gertner last week discounted the RIAA’s arguments, noting that the
organization repeatedly said it sued non-commercial file swappers in order
to generate publicity that would dissuade others from sharing music. Her
order authorized the Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society to
host the streams.(via)
Now the trial has been delayed as RIAA appeals this decision.
Pirates 'streaming' Hollywood's latest
into your home; Studios losing millions
to growing popularity of websites that
give you new movies for free
The Independent on Sunday January 25, 2009
 British cinema goers will have to wait until it opens next week to see if
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button deserves the Oscar and Bafta
nominations showered upon it. But thousands of people across the UK
have already watched the film on their computers at home, thanks to the
latest internet piracy phenomenon: live "streaming" of movies on
YouTube-style websites.
Film piracy watchdogs are so concerned about the rapidly expanding
phenomenon that they have now launched a major clampdown.
Films not yet released in this country…can be seen on sites such as
Watch-Movies. net, which operate in the grey area of copyright law. The
films have already been released in other countries, where they are
copied, mainly by camcorder in a cinema.
"The problem is that the website server may be in one territory, the
person who uploads the film in another, and the site on which the film is
hosted in a third, so it requires a lot of international co-operation."
Assignment for next class
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Distinctions between Copyright and other
legal protections, pp. 49-74
Bell v. Catalda
Trademark Cases
Warne
Dastar v. 20th Century Fox
Forward v. Thorogood
Today
Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony 111
U.S. 53 (1884) LEXSEE® 111 U.S. 53
Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographing Co. 188
U.S. 239 (1903) LEXSEE® 188 U.S. 239
Questions on page 36-7
Copyright Overview 37- 49
Competing Perspectives
Wednesday’s Reading & Today
Chafee quoting
Macaulay, p 15:
“It is a tax on readers
for the purpose of
giving a bounty to
writers. The tax is an
exceedingly bad one;
it is a tax on one of
the most innocent
and most salutary of
human pleasures…”
Ladd, p 28:
“Every limitation on
copyright is a kind of
rate-setting. …more
wisely left with the
people than vested in
a government
tribunal…or even a
sincere judge…
http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/clarklib/wildphot/sarony.htm
Burrow-Giles
U.S. Constitution Art 1, Sect. 8, Cl. 8
“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”
Was © established under the existing statute?
Burrow-Giles
Writing?…Production of an author?
1790--maps charts and books
1802 add prints
1831 musical compositions
1856 plays and public performances
1865 photographs
1870 painting drawings sculpture
What is an author?
Burrow-Giles
Author: “he to whom anything owes its
origin…”
Writing: “…original intellectual
conceptions of an author...”
New?
Original?
Bleistein below &
Justice Harlan’s dissent
… if a chromo, lithograph, or other print,
engraving, or picture has no other use than that
of a mere advertisement, and no value aside from
this function, it would not be promotive of the
useful arts, within the meaning of the
constitutional provision, to protect the "author" in
the exclusive use thereof, and the copyright
statute should not be construed as including such
a publication, if any other construction is
admissible.
Bleistein below &
dissent, Justice Harlan
If a mere label simply designating or describing an
article to which it is attached, and which has no
value separated from the article, does not come
within the constitutional clause upon the subject of
copyright, it must follow that a pictorial illustration
designed and useful only as an advertisement, and
having no intrinsic value other than its function as
an advertisement, must be equally without the
obvious meaning of the constitution.
Bleistein
Famous quotes:
But even if they had been drawn from life, that
fact would not deprive them of protection. ...
Valasquez and Whistler argument?
Others are free to copy the original. They are
not free to copy the copy.
Bleistein
Famous quotes:
The copy is the personal reaction of an
individual upon nature. Personality always
contains something unique. It expresses
its singularity even in handwriting, and a
very modest grade of art has in it
something irreducible, which is one man's
alone. That something he may copyright
unless there is a restriction in the words
of the act.
Bleistein
Famous quotes:
The least pretentious picture has more
originality in it than directories and the like,
which may be copyrighted.
Is the poster original, enough “work” or “effort”
Bleistein
Famous quotes:
A rule cannot be laid down that
would excommunicate the paintings
of Degas.
Ads in?
Bleistein
Famous quotes:
It would be a dangerous undertaking for
persons trained only to the law to
constitute themselves final judges of the
worth of pictorial illustrations, outside of
the narrowest and most obvious limits.
“In connection with the fine arts?”
Questions p. 36-7
Comic strip
Design for a flag
Pornographic work
Unpublished work in a drawer
1000 years
Authorship, does it imply work, novelty
Writing –what is excluded?
Overview of Copyright Law
Pp. 37-49 in the casebook
Copyright Basics: an introduction to copyright law drawn
from the copyright statute and from Copyright Basics by
the Library of Congress, Copyright Office:
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/circs/circ1.html
See also CCC web page:
http://www.copyright.com/ccc/viewPage.do?pageCode=
cr10-n