COPYRIGHT LAW 2006
PROFESSOR FISCHER
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF
AMERICA
FEBRUARY 14, 2006
WRAP UP POINT:
COPYRIGHTABILITY OF
TYPEFACE DESIGNS
• Copyright protection for typeface designs
was deferred. The House Committee
Report did not deny that typeface designs
were writings”. Denied they were
pictorial, graphic, sculptural works;
argued they were useful articles
• Typeface designs are thus only
copyrightable if they are not useful
articles.
Limits on copyright for
architectural works
• Copyright Act s. 120
Limits on copyright for
architectural works
• Copyright Act s. 120(a) - copyright in
architectural works doesn’t include
“right to prevent making, distributing, or
public display of pictures, paintings,
photographs, or other pictorial
representations of the work, if the
building in which the work is embodied is
located in or ordinarily visible from a
public place.”
Limits on copyright for
architectural works
• Copyright Act s. 120(b) - owner of a
building embodying an architectural
work does not require owner’s consent to
make alterations to the building or
destroy or authorize the destruction of
the building.
COPYRIGHTABILITY IN
COMPUTER PROGRAMS
• CONTU Final Report (1978)
• Apple v. Franklin (3d Cir. 1983)
COPYRIGHTABILITY OF
CHARACTERS
• Are characters copyrightable separate
from a story in which it appears?
• If so, when?
• REMEMBER - Characters may also be
trademarked!
Nicholls Test CB p. 233
• According to Learned Hand, are
any/all characters copyrightable?
Nicholls Test
• According to Learned Hand, are any/all
characters copyrightable? Yes, characters
can be protected independent of the plot,
but “the less developed the characters,
the less they can be copyrighted; that is
the penalty an author must bear for
marking them too indistinctly.”
9th Circuit Sam Spade Test CB
234
• Did the court need to decide the
issue of character copyrightability
in this case?
• What rule for character
copyrightability is set out in
Warner Brothers v. Columbia
Broadcasting System?
9th Circuit Sam Spade Test
• The story being told test - no character is
protectable unless “the character really
constitutes the story being told.”
• Narrower or broader than Nicholls test?
• Is it wrong? Has it been overruled? (See
Gaimon Supp. p. 43 – 7th Circuit)
Anderson v. Stallone (C.D.Cal.
1989) – CB 235
• What are the facts of
this case?
• What is the issue?
• What test for
copyrightability of
characters does the
court use?
• Are the Rocky
characters
copyrightable?
MGM v. American Honda
(C.D.Cal. 1995)
• Is James Bond
copyrightable?
• Would any tuxedoclad Brit infringe?
DeCarlo v. Archie Comic
Publications Inc.- CB 242
• Are comic book
characters more or
less protectable
than literary
characters?
• Affirmed by
Second Circuit (see
Supplement)
King Features Syndicates (2d
Cir. 1924) CB p. 243
• Did the toy “Sparky”
infringe the cartoon
character?
• What does the
Copyright Act
protect, according to
the 2d Circuit? Is
this stated level of
protection
overbroad?
Detective Comics v. Bruns (2d
Cir. 1940)
• Did Wonderman
infringe Superman?
• Why or why not?
HUGE EXCEPTION TO
COPYRIGHTABILITY:
GOVERNMENT WORKS
17 U.S.C. Section 105
• Copyright protection under this title is
not available for any work of the
United States Government, but the
United States Government is not
precluded from receiving and holding
copyrights transferred to it by
assignment, bequest, or otherwise.